With Starlight In Their Wake
by I Took the One Less Travelled
Summary: When the Doctor is floating around in space, minding his own business and bugging Amy, suddenly the TARDIS lands them in London, the year 2000. And he meets Rose Tyler, age fourteen, and cannot help but change his own future. 9/Rose, 10/Rose, 11/Rose... basically, Doctor/Rose, because by the time that I'm done with this story, Rose isn't ever leaving. Background Amy/Rory.
1. Of Love and Paradoxes

This story starts on an innocuous spring day, in the year 2000, in London, England. The Doctor was just... floating through space, his companion Amy Pond in the next room when suddenly, the TARDIS fired up without his permission.

"Hey, hey, where are you going?" The Doctor demanded, lunging for the console. "Powell Estates, London, 2000? You miss her too. I know. But—" The TARDIS didn't respond to his arguments, landing smoothly on the sidewalk. Amy had come out when she heard the TARDIS activate, and immediately dashed off to do some shopping, happy to be somewhere resembling modern earth.

Rose Tyler was fourteen years old and walking home from school when she nearly walked into a bright blue box that was parked on the sidewalk. A man came around the front—a goofy-looking, brown haired man with an old fashioned jacket and a bowtie.

Rose backed away. Her mother was always telling her not to talk to strangers, and this man seemed stranger than most.

"Rose?" he asked incredulously. "Rose Tyler?"

"Who are you?" she demanded. "How do you know my name?"

"That's a loaded question, Rose. I just—you look younger. How old are you?"

"Fourteen," she blurted out. "Who _are_ you? How do you know my name?"

"Rose Tyler. I am the Doctor," he answered, vaguely pompously, but also a little bored. As if he was used to giving the introduction, and felt that he should be proud of it, but it had gotten old after about five years from getting his Doctorate.

"Doctor who?" she asked, more of a prompt than a question.

"Just the Doctor," he said cheerily. "Rose..." his voice sounded broken, as if he had been hurt a great deal. "Rose, I really shouldn't, but I can't help myself."

"Shouldn't what?"

"Change history. Change the future. Change _my_ future. Change everything. But... as long as I'm careful, it won't create a paradox."

"A paradox?" Rose asked. "How could you create a paradox?" She had just learned about paradoxes the other day, in fact. It was something that she was proud to have learned—school wasn't usually her thing. "A paradox is something that doesn't make sense—two factors in one loop that contradict each other. 'I am lying' is a paradox, because if I am lying, I'm telling the truth because the statement is correct, and if I'm telling the truth then the statement is false, making it a lie, which makes the statement true, which of course, contradicts the statement again."

"Yes, exactly." He looked thrilled. "And a time paradox is when something within time doesn't make sense. If I go back in time and kill my father before he meets my mother, then I would never have been born. But because I was never born, I didn't go back in time to prevent my own birth, therefore I would have been born as I was supposed to. But because nothing's changed, nothing will stop me from going back in time and preventing my birth in the first place. You see? It's a closed loop that keeps on repeating itself and can't escape. But _if_ I'm careful... If I'm careful, I can succeed. I can't _lose you again_, Rose. So I'm going to make sure that I've never lost you in the first place."

"What are you talking about? Did you escape from the loony bin?" She backed away some more. "Why do you sound like you know me?"

"Rose... How about I tell you a story." He raised his hands in front of him and tried to look non-threatening. "Yeah, that's perfect! I'll tell you the whole story and then wash my hands of it! I can leave it up to you, and _you_ can change the future! Except that I can't stay away, or the future—I'll just—Amy! Where's Amy?"

He scanned the street behind him. "Oh, right, she went to the village for... nevermind that, now. Rose Tyler, would you like to see all of time and space?"

"I don't know who you are, but you're scaring me," Rose said.

"Look, just step inside the box—if I'm telling the truth about our story, which you'll see in a bit, then it'll prove it. And if not, it'll just be a box. Look, I'll just back away—you go inside, and then come back out and tell me if I'm crazy."

"You are crazy!" Rose said. "I don't know what you think your box is, or why you think that I would go inside of it, but—"

"It's my space ship. And," he added, smirking. "Did I mention that it also travels in time? Saved my entire world once upon a time, those words. Come on, then. Go inside!"

He had backed straight into the street, far enough away that she thought that he couldn't trap her in the box. She figured it wouldn't hurt to take a peek, just be totally sure that he was insane. Watching to make sure that he didn't move closer to her, she cautiously crept forward to the open door of the box, propped it even further and peered inside.

It was massive. There was a flight of stairs along the far wall, leading up to a platform with a large centre thing on it. The floor and sides were riddled with massive holes.

Rose pulled her head out the door and looked back at the Doctor. "It's bigger on the inside!" she blurted out, astonished.

"It looks a bit different from the way it will when you see it for the first time, but yes, it is. That's the first thing you said before, too. Now, will you step inside and let me tell you a story?"

"Just because you're telling the truth about your spaceship doesn't mean that you aren't going to hurt me," Rose said primly.

The Doctor winced. "Got to love Jackie Tyler, don't I? Taught you well and good how to be careful."

"You know what else she taught me? How to kick creepy people in the balls," Rose shot back. "How do you know my Mum?"

He grimaced. "She slapped me. Several times. And, on a couple of particularly memorable and unpleasant occasions, kissed me. Sort of miss her now, though. Anyway, I don't mean you any harm. Please trust me, Rose. I would never hurt you. I might inadvertently ruin your life by refusing to stay away from you when it is _clearly_ better for you if I do, but I would never hurt you. And if I was a better man, all I would tell you right now is that when a guy in a leather jacket saves the world from some mannequins and asks you if you want to see the universe, you should say no. But I'm not, so I won't. Please, Rose, please believe me."

Rose looked at him. He looked so sincere... and she would like to know how the box was bigger on the inside then the outside.

"Well, all right," Rose said. "But I have to be back before my Mum gets home at five-thirty."

He grinned at her, heartbreakingly happy, almost earnest. "_Thank you, _Rose. You won't regret it. Or, you might, but I really hope that you don't."

"Now, I'm going to tell you the entirely true story of a man called the Doctor, and his adventures in a blue police box, with the woman that he loved named Rose."

"Me?"

"Yes. You. Or, the person that you'll become, at any rate. We don't meet for the first time until you're nineteen. It was two incarnations ago, but I remember as if it were yesterday."

"Incarnations?"

"The first thing that I have to tell you is that I'm a Time Lord. Not human, an alien. And instead of dying, we regenerate—change every cell in our bodies, become different, inside and out. I didn't tell you that the first time around, and that led to a bit of trouble when I regenerated in front of you, but now I plan to tell the truth up front. And I first met you two bodies ago. I had big ears, really short hair and a beat up leather bad boy getup. And a Northern accent—lot of planets have a north, before you ask."

"Okay..." Rose said. "So, if I'm going to meet you in five years, having become the woman that you love, why are you telling me all of this now?"

"Because I lost you, Rose," he said, looking haunted. "I lost you, and I can't stand that. And now, I'm going to tell you exactly how it happened, so that we can prevent it. You've never met this version of me—you knew my last incarnation rather well, but I lost you before I regenerated last time—produced a clone that I hope that you're happily married to, or else I'll have to kill him. But I'm fundamentally selfish, so I can't just leave it be. Not now that I'm here. Come inside, Rose, and I'll tell you everything."

Rose was captivated by this haunted man that said that he loved her—she hadn't quite outgrown the internal longing for a handsome prince to take her away on an adventure, and here was a man who was claiming that it would happen five years from now, and that _he_ would be the person it would happen with.

She stepped inside the TARDIS. The middle console let off a bunch of flashing lights and happy beeps. "The old girl approves," the Doctor said, placing a hand on her arm and guiding her through. "Good to know.

"This story rightfully starts much earlier than this, but for the sake of time and both of our sanity, I will begin it when we first met. You were working at a department store in London—don't rightfully know its name, frankly, I didn't care. All I cared about was stopping the living plastic," he began, leading her through the main room and to a futuristic looking kitchenette. He gestured for her to take a seat on a barstool, and sat on the table with easy grace.


	2. Several Interludes Upon The Story

Interlude 1: S01E06: Dalek

"So, I touched the thing, and it broke free?"

"Yes, sadly. The TARDIS creates background radiation, and the Daleks figured out how to use it—killed us during the Time War, not that I figured that they fared much better at the time. And then I assumed that you'd killed them again—we'll get to that later. But it's probably for the best that I just... don't assume that they're dead. Yeah, probably assuming that they're still alive and well and hell bent on revenge is probably best, then I wouldn't be so shocked when they appear in the middle of my biggest cock ups. Sorry, you're still young, I probably shouldn't swear around you," he added absently.

"Don't worry, my mum's much worse."

"I know," the Doctor said, smirking. "So, anyway, Dalek wreaks death and destruction, we follow it up, shooting everything that we've got and the kitchen sink at it—nothing happens. Daleks are pretty much indestructible."

"But you won the war against them," Rose objected.

"Won? Not likely." The Doctor snorted. "I _thought_ that we had tied, utterly destroyed each other."

"But you were still alive, weren't you? So that means that you won."

"And to think that I didn't need any more reasons to like you, Rose Tyler," the Doctor said, laughing. "But anyway, they keep popping up. The Dalek Emperor somehow survived, and a few other... we'll get to that, trust me, it comes up. They're pretty much obsessed with me, it's rather creepy."

"So, if we couldn't kill it, what happened, then?"

"It killed itself. You managed to infect it with emotion. It had grown... fond... of you. And to a Dalek, feeling emotion—weakness—is the ultimate deficiency. It couldn't bear to live with the shame of being corrupted by emotion. So it opened up its armour and killed itself. You, all compassionate being that you are, tried to stop it."

"Oh," Rose said.

"So, anyway, the idiot who had been keeping the thing in the basement got demoted, and the woman in charge filled the place with cement. But you had made a Yank friend—didn't like him, much. He didn't stay long. But the other Yank that we'll meet later is much more awesome. But you insisted on bringing him with us."

"Wasn't I in love with you?"

"_I don't know_, you're a woman! How am _I_ supposed to figure out what a woman is feeling? I know that you loved me later, I don't know when you decided that you loved me. But—spoiler alert. So, anyway, you picked up an idiot, and that was the end of that."

Interlude 2:S01E10: The Doctor Dances

"He was a con man? I'll tell him—you—not to go there, then."

"Oh, I think that you'll find that you're quite fond of Captain Jack Harkness when all of this is through."

"But he nearly destroyed—"

"Accidentally," the Doctor said. "And he was _very_ smooth, chances are that if he'd been with us much longer, I would've slept with him myself. And don't give me that look, you would've too. He flirts with _everything_."

"He's still alive, then?"

"More than alive, I'm sure he's around right now. Or, Cardiff, at least. I'll tell you all about Jack and where he landed later, it fits in."

"Okay," Rose said doubtfully. He seemed to be skipping a lot of parts in this story. "So what happened then?"

"We rescued him. You talked me into it, I wasn't so fond of him at that point in time, thought he was trying to take you away from me. I'm sort of possessive. Or I was in that incarnation, less so in the other two that I've known you in. But—I haven't really known you in this incarnation. Who knows, it might be the worst yet."

Rose rolled her eyes, and tried to banish the warm feeling that said that he was free to be possessive over her as long as he was always around.

"We rescued him, and then what happened?"

"Went on an excellent adventure," the Doctor said, winking.

Interlude 3: S01E13: The Parting of the Ways

"I did that?" Rose was astonished. She had never seemed particularly brave, but if she had looked into the time vortex, taken it all inside of herself—clearly, this man brought out the best in her.

"Now, this is important. The vortex was killing you, so I took it inside of myself instead. That was when I regenerated in front of you, see, and you kind of freaked out—demanded that I take you home. I hadn't bothered to explain what was going on, so it was understandable that you didn't get it, but it nearly broke my heart."

"And we left Jack behind?"

"He'll be fine. Well, not really—you made him immortal when you brought him back to life. But you also made _you_ immortal, and I didn't even realize it at the time. In fact, I didn't even realize it after I saw you again, and when I did figure it out, you were long out of my reach. Forever doomed to watch your family die, but never age yourself. Far away from me and Captain Jack, both of whom are immortal and would be with you forever. I couldn't take it, but I didn't do anything. But the TARDIS—she always liked you, so she zapped us here. She wanted me to change the future... so, here we are."

"So, what do you want me to do with this information?"

"As I've said, I'm fundamentally selfish," the Doctor said. "_I'd_ like for you to purposefully absorb the vortex and destroy the Daleks, even knowing the consequences, because _I'd_ like to keep you forever. But it's ultimately up to you—there are other ways, I'm sure. I could absorb it myself, I'm sure Bad Wolf likes me as much as it likes you."

"Okay, okay. Immortality, good to know."

"So, I absorb the vortex and regenerated in front of you—tall, pale, complete beanpole, sideburns and a pinstripe suit. That's me—rude, and not ginger. Dark brown, in fact. _That_ incarnation was all for you. I like to deny that my loved ones shape my regenerations, but that's a lie and I know it. What I want to become—and that regeneration was born of love, sacrifice, and the desire to be something that was worthy of you—has a great deal of bearing on who I turn out to be. The first time you'll meet _him_—and don't interfere with this, it's best to leave it alone—is on New Year's Day, 2005. You were walking down the street with your Mum in the wee hours of the morning, and encountered me, dying of radiation poisoning. You thought I was drunk and asked if I was alright, and I asked what year it was. When you told me, I told you that you were going to have a great year."

"Oh," Rose smiled slightly.

"You met my previous incarnation just over three months later."

"And he took me to see the end of the world. How did you get to be dying of radiation poisoning?"

"Later," he said absently. "We have quite a bit of story to get through before that. So, I took you home, and passed out from the regeneration. Just in time, too, because the earth was being invaded by aliens...

Interlude 4: S02E06: The Age of Steel

"My dad was alive? I thought that—"

"It was a parallel universe. At some point one of those little inventions that your mother was talking about actually worked, and he got rich. Really rich. They never had children—never had the time, and your Mum in that universe was sort of shallow. Moreso than in this one—she's a bit ridiculous, but she's always loved you, and she would die for you."

"I know," Rose said.

"So, the rift ripped open and we fell through, Mickey ran off to see his grandmother, and you and I went to your father's house party, you dragged me there."

...

"My mother!" Rose shrieked in horror, hand over her mouth.

"That's not your mother, Rose," he murmured, but reached over to pull her against his shoulder regardless. She closed her eyes against him for a moment and shuddered.

"I know," she breathed. "I know." She pulled away. "I'm alright." Rose wiped her eyes.

"So, what happened next?"

"We went home. Your father rebuilt—he was very rich, and very influential, he got involved in Torchwood, that'll come up very soon, and then never stop being a perpetual pain in my backside. Mickey stayed."

Rose wasn't sure how to react to that—she didn't love Mickey, but she knew him, and she cared about him. And she knew that she'd miss him, but it kind of sounded like she'd been neglecting him a lot lately.

Interlude 5: S02E09: The Satan Pit

"It was the devil?"

"In a manner of speaking," the Doctor said. "And it gave me the means to kill it, but to do that, I would have had to take down the ship that you were on—kill you. But I said—I said, 'I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demigods and would-be gods; out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing...just one thing..._**I believe in her.**_'"

"You said that? About _me_?" The depths to which this man loved her—it was astounding. It was humbling. It made her no longer think that Jimmy Stone was the slightest bit attractive, and completely destroyed any notion that she might've had towards dropping out of school to move in with him.

"I love you. And I trust you. And I _believe _in you, Rose. You're a bit young for me yet, but you'll get there."

"I think that I should maybe study and get my A-levels," Rose murmured. "Instead of dropping out of school to be with Jimmy Stone."

"Yeah... I wouldn't do that. It didn't end well. Mickey, though, Mickey would take care of you... if it seems like I might be too much."

He looked so heartbreakingly sad at the notion that she hugged him again. He buried his face in her hair and _laughed_ into it. "What?"

"We've never been together romantically, Rose," he explained. "I never even got my head out of my arse enough to tell you that I loved you. Oh, you knew, but I still wish that I had the chance to say it. When we were saying goodbye, I was halfway through saying it when we were separated. We just did _a lot_ of hugging and some very excessive handholding. While we were running for our lives, but it still counts. I knew that I loved you in my next incarnation the moment that I mentioned the end of the world and you said that it was our first date. I need the sort of girl who wants to keep up with me, and who is willing to do what needs to be done."

"I—wow. Maybe I'll have to change that?"

"If anything, you need to plant the idea into my head that you're immortal—that was what was holding me back. We were close enough, if we got even closer, it would hurt even more when you were inevitably gone." He laughed bitterly. "I don't know, it might've, but now I think that it would've been worth it. To be with you, if only for those few, glorious moments in time. As I've stated, I'm fundamentally selfish. And it hurt plenty when you were gone, so... I don't know."

"Okay, plant the idea that I'm immortal."

"Only after the Bad Wolf fiasco—only do it with the second incarnation that you know, the first won't listen to you anyway. He was... stubborn. He loved you, but he was stubborn. My next incarnation was sort of manic, but he was _for_ you, as I've said. He'd do anything for you, you could talk him into whatever you wanted."

"And you? You were next after him?"

"I was borne out of regret. I delayed the regeneration cycle for you, that was what created the meta-crisis—the clone that better be making you happy. Regret and the desire to stop _hurting_ so much. It didn't work, not really. It sort of... numbed my feelings for you, but they were still there. I've never stopped loving you. Never."

Rose stared at him. Was she _worthy _of this sort of love? How could she be? This man, this nine-hundred year old Time Lord who had fought in wars and prevented the end of the world and showed her the entirety of time and space, how could she possibly be worth this? This man who had changed every cell in his body _twice_ since they had met, and had never stopped loving her, how could she possibly matter enough to deserve this?

"So, we got away?"

"We did," he murmured, pulling the story back on track. "You helped. Because I was right to believe in you."

Interlude 6: S02E12/S02E12: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday

"This part gets stingy," he murmured, wincing.

"Why?"

"Because this was when I lost you," he replied, looking for all the world like nothing could soothe his wound.

"Did I... die?" Rose asked. Some of the things that he had said implied that she hadn't, but she wasn't sure what could possibly make her stay away from him. She hadn't had the courage to ask before, but now she figured that it would be best if she knew beforehand.

"No. You didn't die. You were with your family. Safe, happy. Should have been better off, but I'm—"

"Fundamentally selfish, I know," Rose filled in. "_I_ don't think that it's selfish to want to be with the person you love."

"That's because you have no concept of the rules that I'm breaking here. You have _no_ idea what I've done. And I can't bring myself to regret it."

"You haven't done anything horrible," Rose objected.

"I've crossed into and interfered with a personal timeline—_my own_ personal timeline. That is the ultimate forbidden—since the Time War, they've locked off entire timelines to prevent people from doing exactly this."

...

"At least we got to say goodbye," Rose said, trying and failing to blink back tears. "And my father—" she cut off and broke down sobbing, sobbing for her future self, far away from the man that would do anything for her, and for the man himself, who had never stopped hurting over losing her. "I won't ever let it happen. Not ever. Doctor, do you hear me, I'm not going anywhere."

He was crying too, just a couple of tears escaping from the corners of his eyes. He pulled her into his arms again, and breathed into her hair. "I know, Rose. I know. Remember? I am nine-hundred years old. I have seen things that you couldn't imagine, and out of all of that, all of those memories? I _believe in you_."

"Is that the end of the story?"

"Not by a long shot. But it's enough, for today, I think. I'll be back. I'll be back to tutor you in math, and help you get those A-levels and threaten to break Jimmy Stone in half if he goes anywhere near you. And to tell you about the rest of my adventures without you—you might as well hear them all, you can fix everything, and I like to imagine what everything that happened would have been like if you had been there."

"Thank you."

"Doctor?" A female voice called down the hall, before a young redhead entered the kitchen. "Doctor, where are you? Did you even leave the TARDIS—oh. Who's this?"

"Amelia Pond, meet Rose Tyler," the Doctor said grandly. "Amy, Rose used to travel with me. Or she will. Don't worry, you probably won't remember this, not like I will, but you'll meet someday, I'm sure."

"What are you talking about, Doctor? She's just a kid?"

"Oh, she hasn't met me yet. She'll encounter me for the first time in March of 2005, when she's nineteen." He paused. "She's my wife."

"What?" both of them shrieked.

"You neglected to mention _that_," Rose said.

"_You_ don't even know, we got married by accident. It's happened more than once—a lot of planets have some strange customs, sometimes it's easy to get married by accident. Usually, it's just as easy to get it annulled, but I didn't with you. It was my guilty pleasure, see. I couldn't be with you, so I just kept the knowledge that we were married, that I would always be the first no matter who you might be with afterwards to myself."

"She's a kid!" Amy said. "She can't be older than fifteen!"

"I told you, Amy, she hasn't met me yet. We've crossed my timeline, here."

Amy paused. "Oh," she finally said. She hadn't ever really heard of Rose Tyler—perhaps the Doctor had mentioned her once or twice, but she hadn't really heard anything. She just knew that he had cared very deeply for her, and didn't like to talk about it. Honestly, Amy had always kind of assumed that she had died.

"Anyway, tally-ho. I _do not_ need Jackie Tyler on my case for keeping her daughter from home—I swear, that woman is part harpy."

"That's my Mum!" Rose said.

"Like I've said, she's slapped me. Several times."

Rose followed the Doctor and Amy back out the door, staring in astonishment at the blue box. It was tiny on the outside. The Doctor poked his head out. "I'll be back for you, Rose. Maybe I'll even take you on a bit of a tour—we'll have to see. But I will see you."

October 29th, 2000

"Mum! I don't want to dress up as a princess, I'm too old for that! Nobody even dresses up anymore," Rose complained. Her mother, deaf to her complaints, picked up a couple of very floofy dresses and shoved them into her arms.

"Here, Rose, go and try these on," she instructed. Rose rolled her eyes and took the dresses. Stalking to the back of the store and getting a dressing room, she nearly walked into a familiar man with a bowtie.

"Doctor!"

"Rose," he greeted, grinning in delight.

"My Mum wants me to be a princess for Halloween," she complained, brandishing the very fake looking pile of lace and that plasticy fake silk material at him. "_Look_."

"Oh, that doesn't look accurate at all," the Doctor said. "We can't have you wearing that. In fact, that's why I'm here."

He reached into his pocket, and produced another floofy dress, this one considerably more accurate and less gaudy. "Period dress of the monarchy of England, during the fourteen hundreds," he said grandly. "My pockets are bigger on the inside, just go with it."

Rose stared. Instead of being tacky, it was beautiful.

"It fits, I know it does. I had the TARDIS create it just for you. And _here_ is a price tag, so that your Mum doesn't get suspicious. Now all you'll need is a tiara and a hairstyle."

"Thank you, Doctor."

"Anytime," he said, grinning. "Anytime, anything. You need something, I'll get it for you."

Rose went back to her mother. "Mum! Look what I found!" Jackie loved the dress, and loved the price even more, and happily bought it for her daughter and they went home. Two days later, Rose was roaming around on Halloween, and she finally saw the TARDIS.

"Doctor?" she called, knocking on the TARDIS door. The TARDIS opened up for her, beeping happily as it had before.

Amy was in the main console room, sitting on the elevated centrepiece. "Rose!" She greeted cheerfully. "The Doctor's gone out, I don't know where. That's a lovely dress you've got there."

"It's Halloween," Rose explained. "He gave it to me, said that the TARDIS had made it." She patted one of the outer walls in thanks.

The Doctor came through the door minutes after she did. "Rose! So," he said, brandishing a bowl of candy. "I was thinking that it's time for the second installment of our story."

"That's a good idea," Rose said, trying not to give away how eager she was to hear about what had happened to the Doctor after she was gone. "When will you meet Amy?"

"Not for awhile yet," the Doctor said, chuckling. "Come on, then, let's go somewhere more comfortable."

April 3rd, 2001

"Get away, Jimmy!" Rose yelled.

"What? You thought I was sexy last year, why are you pushing me away now? I love you, baby."

"Well that's tough, because I don't like you back," Rose said

"Come on, baby, why are you being like this?"

"You're drunk!" Rose said in horror, fending off his arm as he tried to put it around her. She couldn't believe that she had thought that he was cute. But, now, knowing about the man who would rip apart time itself for her, she couldn't believe that she would have ever lowered her standards to this, in any universe.

"Oi!"

"Get away, man, get your own girl," Jimmy said.

"Get off her!" Mickey yelled.

"Mickey!" Rose called. "He's—he's trying to touch me, and I keep telling him no, but he's not listening."

Mickey hauled off and punched Jimmy Stone in the face. Jimmy ran away, and Mickey quickly draped his jacket around Rose's shoulders.

"Rose! Are you alright?"

"Yes, thank you," she breathed. "How did you know I was in trouble?"

"It was weird—some guy with an old fashioned suit and a bowtie came knocking on my door, told me that you needed help. Said he was a Doctor, but I didn't get his name. I thought that he had meant to get your place and got mine instead, but he seemed just as happy to see me as he would have been to see your Mum."

"The Doctor," Rose breathed. "Is he still here? Did he leave?"

"He bolted off, said he had to get someplace, but that your safety was important to. Said that his tardis, whatever that is, told him that you were in trouble."

"Doctor," she said, sighing softly.

"Do you know him?"

"You could say that. He's kind of the love of my life," she breathed. Mickey looked shocked and stricken. She had always known that he liked her, but she had hoped to nip that in the bud so that he didn't get his heart broken this time around. At least maybe this time it wouldn't be as bad.

"He's a bit old for you, isn't he?"

"Sort of," Rose said. "I won't meet him until I'm nineteen, that'll be a bit different. You know what? Let's not talk about this."

"Okay," Mickey agreed, severely weirded out.

"Take me home now?"

November 4th, 2003

"Doctor, Doctor," Rose called, greeting him with a hug. The Doctor held her close, before pushing her away and looking pained.

"You're not such a kid anymore," he explained. "And while I'd love to just take you with me now, that would fundamentally screw up my own timeline.

"I got a job! At Henrik's Department Store."

"Okay, that's good," the Doctor said. "Now, just don't complain when sometime in March, the security guy asks you to take an envelope downstairs to the electrician—Wilson or something. It'll be dangerous, but just do what I tell you and I'll get you out. Now, what about your homework?"

Rose rolled her eyes and produced a pile of paper from her backpack. "I'll do fine, Doctor."

"You didn't graduate before, you know. I just want you to feel like you've done something right—you never did before."

She smiled at him slightly. "Maybe I'll go to uni, get a doctorate. Then you'd have to call _me_ Doctor."

"Martha got her doctorate," the Doctor said. "You'll like her, I think. You did meet her, but not until after our adventures were mostly over."

"Yeah, when I came back," Rose said.

"You always come back."

January 2nd, 2005

"Doctor! I met you! You were _really_ skinny! And you told me that I would have a really great year, just like you said!"

He grinned at her exuberant greeting.

"And I _really_ wanted to kiss you and make it all better," she added. "You were so broken."

"I almost wish that you had," the Doctor said. "We're getting into grey areas, here. Because if this gets played right, that whole incident might not even happen—hopefully, I won't end up there, dying of radiation poisoning—it was an inelegant way to regenerate, and I don't want to create that clone again, because you're staying with me."

"Always," Rose said, smiling at him.

March 9th, 2005

"This'll be the last time that you see me for awhile," the Doctor said. "You should meet the other me on the 20th, and I don't want to come back here again, so that I don't encounter him."

"Okay," Rose said sadly. "I will see you eventually, right?"

"Yeah," he said. "Eventually. Probably not on the same timeline that I told you—you can probably prevent my previous regeneration for a bit, but regeneration is a natural part of a Time Lord's existence, so I will come about eventually. The first regeneration has to happen exactly on schedule—unless you don't want to become immortal. We can make the meta-crisis Doctor, and you can be happy in Pete's World with your family—"

"No. I told you, Doctor, I'm not leaving you."

"Okay," he said. "Off you go, then."

Rose stepped into his arms for a hug, knowing it would be awhile before she saw the man in this shape. He tilted her chin upwards. "The other two incarnations have done this, but I haven't," he said, before pressing his lips to hers.

She kissed him back, arms wrapped around him, before he placed her back on her feet. "Until we meet again, Rose Tyler," he added with a bow.

"On March 20th," Rose supplied.

"Exactly."

She heard the sound of the TARDIS disappearing before slowly walking back home.


	3. Rose

Her last couple hours of her shift on March 20th, 2005 dragged along like there were entire days tucked into the hours. It would only be a matter of time until she officially met him for the first time, and he took her on the adventure of a lifetime. But finally, finally, there were fifteen minutes left, and she stepped inside the bathroom to run a brush through her hair and touch up the makeup that she usually didn't bother with at work.

Sure, she was going to be running for her life in a matter of half an hour, now, but she still wanted to make a good first impression. Then she walked past security on her way out, and was caught by the security guy, handed an envelope, and told to take it to Wilson in the basement, just like expected.

Show time.

She wandered around the basement looking for Wilson. She didn't find him. And soon, she found herself face-to-face with a room full of live mannequins. The Doctor hadn't been overly specific on how this first meeting went. But she hadn't thought that it was shaved this close.

But then, there was a scruffy-looking man with big ears and a leather jacket at her elbow.

"Run," he instructed in a northern accent.

Rose took a moment to grin at him, before she took his hand and followed him out, adrenaline pounding in her veins.

"Who are you?" she demanded as soon as they came to a stop in the elevator and the Doctor pulled the mannequin's arm off. "What's going on? How were those mannequins alive, was Wilson playing a joke on me? Or—or students!"

"Why would they be students?"

"I don't know!" Rose said hysterically.

"Well, you said it, not me. Why students?"

"You get that many people dressing up and acting stupid, it's got to be students," Rose explained.

"Nice," he said, looking at her with new respect. "Brilliant deduction. It's not students."

"Well," Rose said, trying not to laugh, "whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police." She tried to feel some remorse over Wilson's probable death, but he had always been a bit of sleaze-ball, and she had caught him trying to look down the front of her shirt on more than one occasion. That didn't mean that he deserved to die, or anything, but she didn't really miss him, either.

"Who's Wilson?"

"Head electrician," Rose said.

"Yeah, Wilson's dead," he said brusquely. She held back a slightly sheepish snort. She had expected this, expected this hardened man. But not all hard men were unreachable.

"That's not funny!" Rose said, trying to decide how she would react in this situation if she didn't have prior warning. "That's sick!" Even though she had been thinking about _not_ feeling remorse over Wilson about thirty seconds ago.

"Hold on, mind your eyes." Rose looked away, knowing what was coming when he produced his sonic screwdriver—he was going to destroy the elevator so that the mannequins couldn't follow them up.

"I've had about enough of this now," Rose yelled after him as he took off down the corridor. This was her Doctor, all right. He obviously didn't change _that_ much from incarnation to incarnation. "Who _are _you? Who was that lot down there? If it wasn't students, then what was it? And what did you just do to the lift?"

"They're made of plastic," he answered. "Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay on the roof. Which would be a problem, if I didn't have this." He brandished something at her, and she blinked at it. What was that? She wasn't sure. "So, I'm going to go upstairs and blow it up."

Ah. Explosives, then. Somehow, knowing the Doctor, that didn't surprise her in the slightest.

"And I might die in the process," he continued to babble. "But don't worry about me, no. You go on, go home and have your lovely beans on toast."

Beans on toast? Where in the galaxy had he gotten the idea that she enjoyed _beans on toast_?

"Don't tell anyone about this, cause if you do, you'll get them killed," he finished, sticking the mannequin arm into her hands and shutting the door. Then he opened it again.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way. Who are you?"

"Rose Tyler," she answered, trying not to smile at him. She was supposed to be livid, after all. And for good reason.

"Nice to meet you, Rose Tyler. Run for your life," he added, waving the explosive in her face before slamming the door again. Figuring that he was going to blow the building, she started jogging away.

She stopped about a block away, when she came up on a familiar shape—the TARDIS, parked in an alleyway. "Hey, sexy," she greeted absently. The TARDIS did not respond like she usually did—this was not the version of the TARDIS that knew her and adored her. But she felt a faint query in her head.

"You're worried about him. Don't worry, he won't be alone anymore. I won't let him be alone anymore."

The TARDIS sent her a feeling that sounded like thank you.

In the distance, her job blew up. "Lovely," she muttered.

He was infuriating. He was high-handed. He completely lacked respect for her and—and now she understood that love definitely wasn't easy. She had been expecting a fairy tale, and now, meeting him in person the way that she was supposed to? Now she knew that there was no fairy tale here. That was okay, though, because this was going to be something much better.

"Well," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "_That_ could have gone better."

He would be back. She knew he would be back.

She was right. She ran into him the very next day, and didn't even have to look for him—he showed up at her front door. Poked his head through her cat flap, in fact. He tried to leave, and she threw off an excuse to her mother and dragged him inside, offering tea as an incentive to make him stay.

Then, as she babbled on about the police and he babbled on about a new celebrity couple, she smiled into the tea. She could love this man. She had been so worried that she wouldn't, that all of the anticipation had ruined it. That in the Doctor's attempts to fix everything, he had ruined her ability to fall for him.

Then she came out and found the living plastic strangling him. She immediately set the tea down and helped wrestle it off of him, and he stuck his screwdriver into the palm of its hand and disconnected it from the relay.

"Okay, so clearly, the stuff isn't gone," Rose said, staring at the hand. "Is that why you're here? Were you looking for it?"

"Yes," he answered. "And now I have to find it. Good to see you, Rose Tyler, have a nice life."

He stalked out the front door. "Not without you, I won't," Rose muttered, following after him.

"But! But—you said if I told anyone, I'd get them killed! So I'll go to the police," she got out in a jumbled mess. "I'll go to the police and tell them everything if you don't explain right now!"

"Is that supposed to be intimidating?"

"Sort of, yes," she murmured.

"Well, it sort of was. Congratulations. They're attempting to take over the planet and overthrow the human race. Do you believe me?"

"Yes," Rose answered. "How do we stop them?"

"_We_ do not do anything. _I_ have this. I just have to find the auton—the leader. I have to find the leader."

"What is that?"

"Anti-plastic," he answered. "Very rare, but it'll kill them instantly if it comes to it. You, though—nice to meet you, Rose Tyler. Now forget about me."

As if. She would _never_ forget him. And she'd never leave him, either. "Hold on a minute!" She hollered. "Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor," he said, waving jauntily.

"Is that supposed to sound impressive, or something?"

"Little bit, yeah."

She just rolled her eyes and continued to follow him.

"So, you really believed me about them trying to take over the human race?"

Yes. Mostly because she'd always believe him, not matter how ridiculous he sounded, but she couldn't say that. "Yes," she said. "I mean, clearly, they aren't from around here. And unless they're some kind of robot, they must be aliens. And, come on. I've seen alien invasion movies. Star Trek. They're all trying to take over the human race—otherwise, they think we're pathetic and are generally uninterested in us. Therefore, they wouldn't come here unless they wanted to take over. What are you, some kind of alien hunter, or something?"

"Or something," the Doctor said darkly.

"What, then?"

"Nothing that you've ever heard of."

Oh, he would be surprised.

"Hold on, you think you're going off without me? How are you even going to find this thing?"

"It needs a transmitter," he answered absently. "I just have to find it. Run along now, Rose Tyler. Like I said, forget about me."

This time, he caught up with the TARDIS, and she watched as it vanished, wincing. She had known that he would see her as an annoyance at first, but she could be persistent.

Meanwhile...

"Doctor!" Amy called. "I didn't know that you had a phone!"

The Doctor came running out of the back room. "I don't, that's not mine. It's—Martha's. Damnit!"

"Who's Martha?"

"Another former companion of mine. I think that she and Jack are the only ones who have that number. Or Mickey, he's her husband. But the Rose that I knew is in a parallel world, Donna can't remember me—Sarah Jane, maybe, but I doubt it. Give it here."

Amy passed the ringing cell phone over, and the Doctor flipped it open. "Hello? Martha, Jack, Martha? Mickey-Mouse?

"It's Donna, Doctor."

The Doctor stopped dead and went silent. "Donna? How could you possibly—"

"I can _remember_, Doctor. I remember everything, and nothing's happening to me. I don't remember it like it was _me_, I just remember as if it was a film that I watched."

"Donna," he gasped out, like someone had fed a suffocating man air. Amy watched in disbelief as he sunk down against the back wall. "Donna, sister of my heart. Donna." He cradled the phone like it was the most precious thing in the world to him.

"She's changing things, Donna."

"Rose."

"Yes, Rose Tyler, who I left in a parallel world. It unlocked your Time Lord side, but not completely. You can see the memories, but not access them. You're safe. Oh, Donna Noble, I'm coming to get you."

He snapped the phone shut and dropped it back into the TARDIS console. It must have always been there, but Amy had never really noticed it before. "Come on, Pond!" He said enthusiastically. "I think that it's time that you met my sister."

Amy was left staring—at least before the TARDIS dumped her on the ground because she hadn't been holding on. As soon as it settled, the Doctor was out the door like someone had shot him from a cannon. She joined him outside to find him hugging a woman—a redhead.

"Doctor! You've regenerated," the woman said, laughing. She shoved him away slightly. "Spaceman."

"Oh, Donna," he said, hugging her again.

"Donna, this is Amelia Pond. Amy, Donna Noble. My sister in all but blood."

"Nevermind that, Dumbo! What did you _do_?" Donna demanded.

"Something very bad." He said soberly. "I won't lie about that."

"What, though?"

"My TARDIS just activated out of nowhere, landed me in London in the year 2000. Just as fourteen year old Rose Tyler was wandering by."

"Doctor!" Donna said in horror.

"I know, I know," he said. "_I know_. And I shouldn't have."

"You told her everything."

"Everything," he admitted sheepishly. "Yes, that's about the size of it. She was right livid when I told her about how I had dumped her back in Bad Wolf bay with my meta-crisis clone. Made me promise never again."

"Doctor," Donna said, sounding vaguely scolding but as if it was something that she had expected. "Oh, Doctor, you'll never lose her!"

"I know. I know, Donna, I know. But the real reason that I did it—remember when you got sucked into that parallel world, the one where you had made a choice that led to you not meeting me, and afterwards, she told you to tell me 'Bad Wolf', and suddenly the place was papered in the words?"

"Yeah. You lost it, completely freaked out," Donna said, squinting. "I never did find out why."

"It's because that wasn't the first time I've heard about Rose associated with Bad Wolf," the Doctor explained.

"What happened?"

"Bad Wolf is an entity that... possessed her. She, Jack and I were facing the Dalek emperor, we were all going to die. I programmed the TARDIS to take her back to her own time and shoved her inside. Rose Tyler, though, is made of sterner stuff than that."

"What did she do?"

"She pried the top of the console off the TARDIS with some kind of massive truck and looked into the Time Vortex, and Bad Wolf—whatever Bad Wolf _is_, nobody's ever been completely sure—possessed her, came back and vaporized the Daleks, brought Jack back to life. That's how he ended up immortal, you know—she made him a fixed point in time. It's why I abandoned him there. Because he physically _hurts_ to look at. The vortex was killing her, the same way that it nearly killed you. So I took it out of her and had to regenerate, and I thought that that was the end of that. But then later—after I had left her in a parallel dimension with a mortal version of me—I realized that it wasn't just Jack that Bad Wolf had made immortal. She wasn't affected the same way, not a fixed point—her timelines are in flux, but she can't change, can't die."

"She's immortal, trapped in a parallel universe with a version of you that will grow old and die on her, just like you spent a very long time being afraid would happen to her around you, and has no way to get back," Donna summarized flatly. "And chances are, unless she's suffered any life ending injuries, she doesn't even know."

"Exactly."

"You are a _wanker_," Donna marvelled. "You are a complete arse, and if I were her, I would have washed my hands of you a long time ago."

"You _didn't_, though."

"Yeah, well, I'm not your forever lady," she shot back. "I'm not _in love_ with you."

"I guess that's why she never left," he said softly.

"And why she fought so hard to get back to you," Donna added gently. "Because she _loves_ you, and no matter what happened, she never stopped."

"Yeah," he breathed.

"Yeah," Donna agreed.

"So, Donna Noble, want to see the universe? Again?"

"Didn't I swear that I was going to stay with you forever?"

About Six Years Earlier...

Rose had gone out for lunch with Mickey when, all of a sudden, the Doctor was there, shooting a cork from a champagne bottle in his face. How had Mickey been replaced by a mannequin without her even noticing? She stared in disbelief as the Doctor popped its head off, but sprang into action after that—pulling the fire alarm and bolting away from the plastic body, which had turned its hands into massive cleavers and started chopping.

And there was the TARDIS again. She followed him inside. "Jesus!" Rose blurted in faked surprise. "It's bigger on the inside than the outside."

"Yes it is," he agreed cautiously.

"How? Some kind of spatial distortion thing? What? I paid attention in physics! It's... alien?"

"Yes."

"And _you're_ alien?"

"Yes. Is that... alright?" Apparently, he _did_ like her. Enough to care what she thought of him.

"Yeah," she finally said, grinning. She had had a long time to become used to the existence of aliens. "What are you doing with Mickey—or, that thing's head?"

"Tracking the signal. An arm wasn't enough, but the head was perfect."

"Is he... dead?" Rose wondered if perhaps she had changed something. She knew that Mickey had shown up in some of their later adventures, but maybe being near her at that moment had gotten him killed.

"I don't know," the Doctor said finally. Rose winced.

"No, no, no!" the Doctor shouted, running around to kick up the TARDIS as the head melted on the console. Rose winced again as he launched himself outside, and followed him. "What! We _moved_," she said in shock.

"Damnit, how am I going to track it? I need to find the consciousness!"

"The consciousness?"

"The being that's controlling the transmitter. I showed you that anti plastic, right? But I need to find it first. How is it hiding the transmitter? It would have to be huge, metal and round, right in the middle of London."

Rose nearly snorted, staring over his shoulder at the London Eye. "What?" he asked. She pointed, and he glanced over his shoulder. "What?" She pointed again, and he looked again. "What, Rose, what is it?"

She arched an eyebrow and nodded at the London Eye.

"Oh," he finally said. "Fantastic!"

They reached for the other's hand at the same time, and took off around the bay to the Eye. He looked around, and Rose ran right for the back railing. "What about down here?" She asked, swinging down the stairs. He followed behind her, grinning.

"You're not going to just... kill it, are you?" she asked, staring down at the nesting consciousness. It looked like a giant lava pit. "You have to give it a chance."

"Yeah," he agreed. He scaled down the flight of stairs. "I seek audience with the consciousness under peaceful contract, according to convention fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation," he called. The lava thing roared.

It roared again, and formed into a sort of blob to flex up at him. Rose watched with a raised eyebrow before she spotted Mickey, leaning against a railing. "Mickey!" she called. She darted down the stairs towards him. "Doctor, they kept him alive!"

"Yes, that was always a possibility. Keep him alive to maintain the copy."

"Right, of course." She knelt next to Mickey.

"Rose! That thing, it talks. Hold on—Doctor? Like, the guy with—" Rose neatly covered his mouth with her hand.

"Am I addressing the consciousness?" The Doctor asked. "Thank you. Now, may I observe that you have infiltrated this planet in an act of war? And may I suggest with the greatest respect that you _shunt off_?"

It roared again. "Don't give me that. This is an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk to me about constitutional rights."

"I _am talking_! This planet is just starting. These... stupid little people are only just learning to walk, but they're capable of so much more. And I am asking you on their behalf. Please, just go—"

"Doctor!" Rose called, jerking forward only to be pulled back by Mickey. Several mannequins had snuck up on the Doctor. They wrestled him down and pulled the vial of anti-plastic out of his jacket.

Rose cursed under her breath. Obviously, her exposure to the Doctor had negatively affected her language, because she seemed to be swearing a lot lately.

"That was just insurance! In case it went wrong, that's all!" the Doctor called. "I wasn't going to attack you—I'm your ally, I swear. Oh, no, no, honestly, no!" A sliding panel opened above them, revealing the TARDIS.

"Yes, that's my ship," he said cautiously. "That's not true! I fought in the war, it wasn't my fault. I couldn't—I couldn't save your planet, I couldn't save any of them!"

Rose winced. She had never in her life heard the Doctor sound so broken. But from what his future self had said, she had been the one that had fixed him. And it sounded like she had her work cut out for her. But for the love of this man, she would do anything.

The lava pit writhed and twisted. "What is it doing?" Rose shrieked.

"It's going to the final stage—get out, Rose, take your boyfriend and get out, now!"

Rose grabbed her phone and speed dialled her mother, intent on telling her to get someplace safe, but that didn't really work—she knew that they would manage to win against the living plastic, but she didn't want her mother in the line of fire at all.

"Mum!" She yelled, interrupting her mother's continual prattling about compensation. If she hadn't been planning on leaving, she probably would have called her manager to see about employment insurance or something, but it was irrelevant. "Don't go to the shops. Turn around, get back inside the police station. Tell them you're waiting for a ride or something, but just go inside. Don't argue with me, Mum, just do it! Something bad is going to happen."

Then she hung up, before her mother could argue. She had been sneaking around a lot in the past few years, and had perfected the method to getting through to her mother—steamroll over her until she was too speechless to say anything more and had to listen to her. It was maybe a bit rude, but her mother could be equally rude.

"I'm not leaving you!" she called. "How can we get out of this?"

Mickey clutched onto her jacket, and Rose pushed him away. "Go, Mickey! I'll be okay."

It was kind of ridiculous, and Rose realized why the Doctor had pegged them for a couple. Mickey was her absolute best friend in the entire world. She hadn't wanted to get romantically involved with him, because she had known that it would only end in heartbreak (for him), but wasn't this just as bad? Had she been leading him on, all this time?

"Go, Rose, get out, now!" the Doctor called again.

Rose began scanning the building, intent on getting Mickey to leave. "The stairs are gone," she muttered. Having an abrupt idea, she grabbed onto him and went for the door to the TARDIS. The other TARDIS that she knew would have opened for her as soon as she touched it—the Doctor's future TARDIS adored her. But this version of the TARDIS didn't know her yet, and didn't respond to her frantic attempts to get it open.

Okay, time to be resourceful. She bolted straight for the far wall, grabbing a fire axe from the emergency box on the way by. Then she smashed the axe against the ropes and cuffs holding a chain to the wall, wrapped her hands around the chain and leapt off the upper overhang to kick the mannequins off the Doctor. The anti-plastic fell from the mannequin's grip, and Rose kicked it into the pit before releasing her grip on the chain and dropping to the ground in front of the Doctor. He caught her and steadied her, and it made her breath catch at how easily she fitted into his arms.

"Uh-oh," he murmured, his breath against her ear. "We're in trouble." And he was right. The inner room was exploding, collapsing as the Nesting Consciousness writhed and shot off blue lightning. "Come on!" He locked his hand with hers again and led the way up the stairs, where Mickey was sitting uselessly in front of the TARDIS door. He unlocked it, and herded them both inside.

Ten seconds later, he was letting them both out on the street behind the Powell Estate.

"I saved your life in there," Rose said, knowing that he needed to make the offer, and that he _would_ make it without her prompting. "You would have been a goner if it weren't for me."

"I know." He paused and looked at her. "Thank you." Serious for once. "Well, off to travelling alone, back to the stars for me. Unless..."

"What?"

"Well, you could come with me?"

"Rose! Don't go near him! He's an alien, he's a _thing_!"

"He's not invited," the Doctor said primly. Rose snickered.

"Come with you and do what?" She ventured, taking a step forward.

"See the universe, all of space. And, did I mention that it also travels in time?"

"Goodbye, Mickey. Tell my mum that I'm alright," Rose said over her shoulder as she jogged towards the TARDIS doors.


	4. Aliens of London

Rose knew what was happening. She knew what was going to happen, and while she felt guilty for worrying her mother the way that she had, it was still worth it—they had to be here to interfere with the Slitheen attempted takeover.

The TARDIS materialized in its usual parking space in the middle of the street behind the Powell Estates. "How long has it been?"

"About twelve hours," he said cheerfully. She nearly laughed. This version of the Doctor—she _loved_ him. Not just the Doctor in general, but she had grown to love this incarnation, just as she was sure that she would love the next one.

"Are you sure? What's this, then?" She spotted a poster with her face on it across the alleyway. He swore and lunged for it.

"Rose," he murmured. "It's been twelve months. Not twelve hours. Sorry." Rose nearly laughed at how _not_ sorry that he sounded. Then she thought that it was good to be honest, and laughed aloud. "You aren't mad?"

"You didn't do it on purpose," Rose dismissed. "I'm sure that my mother's been worried sick, and she might slap you if we can't come up with a good cover story, but it's not like this sort of thing wasn't a risk with a time machine."

Then—"Mum!" She launched for the stairs, trying not to think about the painful inevitability of her mother going to live in Pete's World. Of not being able to see her again.

She slammed the door to her mother's flat open with urgency, bolting across the floor into the kitchen. "Mum? Mum? I'm home. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I can explain—sort of. But please—" she stopped dead to face her mother, in a dressing gown and no makeup with her hair undone, despite it being the middle of the day. She was clutching a mug of tea in her hands. She stared a Rose for a split second, and then dropped the tea all over the floor. The mug shattered and sent scalding liquid everywhere, and Rose squealed and leapt back. Her mother, mindless of the shards of glass and the tea all over the floor, stepped forward and enveloped her in the sort of desperate hug that said that she truly had been scared for Rose's life.

Rose had known that, after she had gotten over her worry in the previous timeline, Jackie had actually taken Rose's disappearance rather well. But she realized with a mental slap that this version of Jackie hadn't ever seen Rose drop out of school to run away with Jimmy Stone. She hadn't ever experienced Rose disappearing to do things her own speed, as the Doctor had stated that he knew that the other version of her had done.

No, this version of Rose Tyler had stayed right here, healthy thirst for adventure assuaged by the knowledge that one day, the Doctor would come for her, as well as her own periodic visits with his future incarnation.

"Rose!" the Doctor had come scaling up the stairs. "We need— oh, hello," he said to Jackie. Rose winced as Jackie put her to the side and smacked the Doctor right across the face.

"Who are you, then?" Jackie demanded. "Where did you take my daughter?"

"Mum!" Rose lunged forward and caught her mother's hand before she could hit him again. "This is Doctor John Smith. He's with... Doctors without Borders. I encountered him and he needed an assistant in a hurry, and then I didn't get a signal anywhere... and I'm so sorry, Mum!"

Half an hour later, they were fully embroiled in a full-blown police investigation. It hadn't seemed to bother anyone that Rose continually informed them that she had _wanted_ to come, that she was a legal adult, and could therefore take off whenever she felt like it. None of it seemed to matter.

Finally, Rose was free to run away, and the Doctor followed. He tried to seem indifferent when he asked gruffly if she wanted to stay here, but pleased when she informed him that she didn't, but that maybe he could avoid being an entire year off next time, yeah?

They were in the middle of deciding what they wanted to go and see next when a spaceship sailed over their heads and crashed into Big Ben.

"Doctor? Was that supposed to happen?"

"No. No it wasn't," the Doctor answered. Then he grinned and seized her hand in his, and they ran towards the source of the disturbance.

Meanwhile...

"What's it say?" Amy asked, leaning over the other side of the glass case.

The Doctor groaned. "It says 'Hello, Sweetie,'" he answered rather irritably. Next thing Amy knew, he had pried the glass off the top of the case with his sonic, and grabbed the cube. Alarms sounded, and Amy yelped in surprise and followed on his heels to the TARDIS as a battalion of armed guards kicked their way into the room.

He hooked the cube up onto the TARDIS console—he pulled the mobile that she had only seen used once out of its spot, and handed it to Donna, who had come out of the back room. "Call Jack, would you, tell him that I'm going to be by to pick him up," he instructed. "Now, Amy—Jack Harkness, don't listen to him. He'll flirt with you, he flirts with everyone. It's best for everybody that we don't encourage him."

Then he focussed the screen on a tall woman in a dress with curly hair, who winked at the camera and rattled off a string of numbers. "What?"

"Doctor, that's that River Song woman," Donna said.

"Yeah," he said heavily. "I know. Call Jack."

Donna flicked the phone open and dialled, moving down the console and away from the centre to talk urgently into it, and the Doctor started flipped levers. He gestured to a lever next to Amy, and Amy flipped it carefully.

Then the Doctor darted across the console and opened the doors, and the woman sailed right into them. She smashed against the railing of the console and swore. Then she got a good look at the Doctor.

"What have you done?" She asked.

"I'm sorry," he answered. "I' m so sorry." He realized that he was being reminiscent of his previous self, but indifferent to it.

"Doctor!"

"He found Rose Tyler," Donna said, hanging up the phone. "He's waiting by the rift, says you'd better hurry up so that he can—I'm not going to say that."

The Doctor shook his head. "Oh, Jack," he said fondly.

River stalked around the console, reached underneath the raised platform and pulled out some sort of contraption that had the Doctor and Donna wincing in recognition and Amy staring in confusion. "Paradox machine."

The Doctor winced again, and Donna put her face into her hand.

"You cannibalized your TARDIS to create a paradox machine."

"It was her idea!" the Doctor whined. "Besides, it's a weak paradox machine, the two timelines will eventually meet up again."

"Doctor, I'm sure that you've figured out who I am by now—"

"The first time we meet, you whisper my real name in my ear, to convince me to trust you," he said dully. "So, yes, I've figured out who you are."

"You always loved Rose Tyler more than me," she said. "Oh, you loved me too, but she was always there—"

"I'm sorry," he tried.

"You couldn't help it, you couldn't help loving her," River dismissed. "You loved me, but—Rose Tyler was always like some sort of untouchable fairytale. You never stopped loving her. Never stopped missing her, no matter how much time and how many regenerations. The Time Lord and his Lady, forever travelling the stars. And I always swore that if there was a way to get her back for you, I would, even if it meant that I lost you forever. But this—Doctor, don't you see how dangerous this is? The consequences?"

He sagged, suddenly defeated. "It wasn't on purpose, I swear that it wasn't," he finally said. "I didn't go there on purpose. The TARDIS just took me there, and I ran into her and I just couldn't stop myself. I couldn't lose her again."

"Doctor? Jack." Donna prompted. The Doctor sprang into action again, grabbing the paradox machine from River and shoving it back underneath the console and scaling up the stairs to set the TARDIS up.

"Where exactly are we going?" Amy wanted to know.

"Cardiff. Year 2010."

"Cardiff?" Amy demanded. "Cardiff, Wales?"

"Yep," he said cheerfully. "Cardiff. Like I said, need to pick up a passenger. Don't flirt back, whatever you do, or he'll be incorrigible."

"Captain Jack Harkness," River said. "Ex-Time Agent, fifty-first century. Immortal, a fixed point in time. Currently the leader of Torchwood 3, based in Cardiff atop the rift."

"You've met?"

"No, actually. But you talk about him sometimes. And you're probably right—we need him."

"Why?"

"What do you know about Weeping Angels?"

The Doctor paled. "Donna? Jack." He and Donna jumped to the TARDIS console, and River followed them. Amy stared in shock as the three of them began a complicated dance around the TARDIS, flipping levers seemingly at random.

"Cardiff!" The Doctor announced dramatically, pointing at the doors. Donna walked out the front to the side of a tall, good looking and dark haired man dressed in a long coat that was reminiscent of World War II.

They embraced quickly, Donna kissed his cheek and danced out of his reach before he could let his hands wander anywhere inappropriate. Then his eyes fell on Amy.

"Captain Jack Harkness," he introduced himself flirtatiously. "And who are you?" He took her hand in his and kissed it like she was some sort of queen.

"Amelia Pond," she said. "Amy." Despite her forewarning, she wasn't able to hold back her blush.

"Nice to meet you, Amy Pond," he said, looking into her eyes and letting her hand fall.

"Oh, don't start," the Doctor groaned, stalking out of the TARDIS.

"I'm just saying hello," Jack protested weakly.

"Well, save it. What do you know about Weeping Angels?"

"And paradox machines?" he asked knowingly.

"Donna!"

"Doctor!" Jack stepped forward, rested the palms of his hands on the Doctor's shoulders. "You of all people should know about what havoc a paradox machine can wreak. I loved Rose, too. I miss her, too. But this—you're changing our past, even right now as we speak."

"I couldn't resist," the Doctor said brokenly, before he collapsed into the larger man's body.

"_You_ gave her up, Doctor. Rose Tyler loved you with her entire soul. She would have followed you across the universe and back again. _You_ were the one that put her back into that parallel universe like she hadn't just fought everything and everyone to get back to you."

"I was _trying_ to give her the life that she had always wanted with the man that she loved!" The Doctor half howled.

"The man that she loved is _you_, Doctor, and the life that she always wanted was to be with you forever!" Jack shook him. "What's with the bowtie, by the way?"

"Bowties are cool," the Doctor said, stung. "I was _dying_ Jack! Everyone kept saying that my song was ending, and there was a perfect solution—_me_. That clone was _me_. I could leave her with _him_, and know that he would always keep her safe because he was _me_, but he would age with her. Die with her. She could have him, and her family."

"He wasn't you," Jack said mildly.

"He needed her," the Doctor said, equally mildly. "And that's very me."

"Just like _you_ need her," Jack shot back. Amy watched the volley with wide eyes. "Just like, no matter what happens, and whether you have big ears, pinstripes or a bowtie, you will _always_ need her. Rose Tyler touches people's lives, Doctor. She changed my entire world, the day that I found a cute blonde in a Union Jack t-shirt dangling from a barrage balloon in the middle of the London Blitz. For once in your very long life, you're just on the same speed as the rest of the humans—utterly fascinated by Rose Tyler. But you're different, too—because she was fascinated back."

"He's never stopped loving her." River Song had stepped forward. "I'm from the future—his future. He never stops loving her, no matter how much time and how many regenerations, he never stops loving her, never forgets her and he'll never stop hurting over her being gone."

"You're an idiot," Jack said affectionately. Then he kissed the Doctor full on the mouth. The Doctor didn't make a particular effort to kiss back, but he didn't push Jack away, either.

Amy gaped. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

Jack pulled away. "Miss Pond," he said suddenly, turning to her. Amy snapped her jaw shut with a little effort. "Would you care to accompany me to the bar? I'd reckon that these three need to lay plans for dealing with the Weeping Angel—nasty little things—and you certainly look like you need it. I can fill you in on some of the things that you've missed."

"I'm—I've got someone," Amy blurted out, unable to bring herself to utter the word fiancé, let alone contemplate that tomorrow and an entire world away, she was going to be marrying him—if she didn't act like a coward and back out.

"I'm harmless, I promise," Jack said, laughing. "Well, unless you don't want me to be, of course." Then he offered her his arm, and she took it and followed him to the nearest pub. He ordered each of them a beer, and then several shots of something highly alcoholic. "Trust me, Red, after hearing this story, you're going to need it," he said.

Then he told her a fairytale, about a girl, and a wolf, and the madman who loved her from his point of view. There were a lot of gaps because of that, but Amy was still left half gaping and half crying by the time that he reached the end, telling of how the Doctor had left Rose in the other dimension with his clone. The urge to slap him was powerful. The urge to put his head in the crook of her neck and stroke his hair while he cried was stronger. Because he_must _have cried. If he hadn't, he was horribly emotionally stunted, and she needed to get him crying very soon. And she understood. River, Jack and Donna had all lectured him when they had discovered what he had done. And perhaps they knew better than her, but maybe that was her purpose in this mess—the Doctor needed someone to be on his side. He needed someone who would tell him that he wasn't breaking the very laws of the universe (even though he was). He needed someone to tell him that he wasn't being selfish, fighting for the woman that he loved. He needed someone to tell him that he was _right_. And, Amy was getting married tomorrow. It was inevitable that she be a hopeless romantic, and the story of two people that had almost torn the universe apart trying to get back to each other was perfect fodder for her romantic instincts.

Dangerous? Yes. But worth it? Well, if he loved Rose Tyler the way that Jack Harkness claimed that he did, then how could Amy ever condemn him for it? How could she condemn him for behaving the way that she really hoped that Rory would, if ever separated from her?

"Telling her all my secrets, Jack?" The Doctor asked. Amy spun around on the barstool.

"Just the ones that relate to Rose Tyler, Doc," Jack answered. "She's stuck in the middle of this, she needs to know."

"I know," the Doctor said heavily. He sat down on the stool next to Amy.

"Doctor?" Amy said, before she could lose her courage. "I think you're right. Just so that you know."

"Right about what?"

"I think that you're right to fight for her," she answered.

"See?" The Doctor said moodily. "That's why Pond's my favourite. No 'Doctor, do you know what you've done?' or 'Doctor, you know how much damage a paradox machine can cause'. Just that I'm right to fight for the woman that I love."

Both imitations were done in disturbingly high pitched voices, and Jack and River, who had entered behind the Doctor, looked offended.

"Oh, so you admit that you love her, now? Thought that it didn't need saying?" Jack demanded.

"What—"

"Rose Tyler is like a sister to me, Doctor. And you've broken her heart one too many times for me to be overly forgiving of your stupidity."

"It was best for her."

"It was _her decision_!"

"Jack, I was dying! For all that I knew, I had two days! I couldn't take her with me, knowing that. You have _no idea_ how much I wanted to. _No idea_ how hard it was to walk away from her on that beach. I didn't tell her how I felt because if I did, chances were I would have snagged her around the waist and dragged her back into the TARDIS, and bolted out of that godforsaken universe before anyone could stop me. And she needed to hear it from the man who could give her what she needed."

"Her decision, Doc."

"I could have gotten her killed. Then where would we be?"

"A little birdie told me that she can't die," Jack singsonged. "That whatever she did to me, she did something to herself, too. Also—don't tell me that you weren't turned on by watching yourself kiss her."

"Not all of us are sex maniacs, Jack. And I was too jealous to be turned on. The adventure that I'll never have..." he stared wistfully at the ceiling. "Marriage. Children. Rose needs someone to grow old with."

"Then why the fuck didn't you just let it be?"

"Because I'm a selfish bastard," the Doctor said, laughing humourlessly. "I've always been—but with Rose even more so. The day that I took her hand in the basement of a department store and told her to run is the day that I began ruining her life. I knew it, too. But—"

"You needed her, so you couldn't stop yourself," Jack said knowingly.

"Exactly. I've never had much in the way of impulse control, where Rose Tyler is concerned. No matter what body I'm in. And in that first body, I was so... broken. Guilt-ridden, blunt and rough. That body was born of war, regret, pain and blood. Baptized in the fires of Gallifrey. But she _fixed_ me. If I hadn't met her, I likely would have died on the roof of that department store when I blew it up. I was planning on it, in fact. I was planning on dying and not regenerating. But _her eyes_..."

"Come on," Jack said. "I knew you in that body, you weren't _that_ bad."

"I'd been travelling with her for more than six months by the time that you met me, Jack. She had soothed the wounds, the guilt, the loneliness. And, come on, Harkness, I was pretty bad. She probably told you that the first place that I took her was the end of the world? She didn't tell you why, even though I'm sure that she knew."

"I'll bite. Why?"

"Because I wanted her to understand my pain. Remember, Jack, that I had just watched Gallifrey burn. In fact, I as good as burned Gallifrey with my own hands. I wanted her to watch her planet burning, to understand why it hurt so much. I was trying to show her why I was the way that I was, so that my attitude didn't scare her off."

"You were a douche. She loves you anyway—get up, and move on," Jack said.

"I was violent."

"You weren't pleased when you discovered that I was trying to con you." Jack said. He laughed. "Lifetimes ago."

River reached over and confiscated one of the shot glasses as the Doctor went to drink the contents. "Weeping Angel, Doctor. Captain. _Now_."

Jack pouted ridiculously at her, and all three of them got up to follow River back to the TARDIS where Donna was waiting.

"He just said that Rose is like a sister to him," Amy observed. She leaned up to the Doctor's ear as they walked.

"It's complicated."

"Well, I could have sworn that he was in love with her. Or you."

"Jack Harkness is in love with me and Rose as a unit. A single entity. And the way that I've behaved without her, I can't blame him—ask Martha, right after I lost her I was like half a person. Jack would never be interested in one without the other, because Rose and I aren't complete without each other, and Jack doesn't want less than a whole person."

"Would he ever _get_ both of you as a unit?" Amy poked at him. She knew some things—she wasn't an idiot. The way that the Doctor hadn't pushed Jack away when he kissed him, the way that he didn't do anything to stop the flirting, the way that they exchanged stories, the way that she had found out more about the Doctor by listening to him chatting with Jack then she had in the entire time that she had known him were all signs around what the Doctor thought about Jack.

"I don't know," the Doctor finally said. "My ninth incarnation? Yes. In a heartbeat. My tenth, probably not."

"What?"

"I'm a Time Lord, Amy. We don't die, we regenerate. Change every cell in our bodies, become a different person with the same memories. I met Rose in my ninth incarnation. We lost track of Jack right before I regenerated into my tenth one, and _he_ was obsessed with her. I regenerated right in front of her, and that incarnation was _made_ to love her. My hair was exactly what I thought that she wanted. My eyes were the same color as hers. Our hands fit together like puzzle pieces. He loved her with all of his soul, because that was what he was made to do. Hell, even his _accent_ matched hers."

"How many times have you changed since then?"

"One. I am in my eleventh incarnation. When you met me, I acted the way that I did because I had just regenerated, and it makes me a little bit loopy. Being twelve years late? That would be because the TARDIS was recalibrating. It was five minutes for me. Even less than that, actually. It was seconds. I literally jumped from one time to the other."

"And why would your ninth sleep with Jack and your tenth wouldn't?"

"As I said, Ten was _made_ to love Rose Tyler. He wouldn't have shared her. But Nine loved Jack nearly as much. Also, Ten was straight and Nine wasn't."

"What about you?"

"Not straight. I don't know how I'd feel about Jack and Rose."

"Why would some of your incarnations be straight and others not?" Amy asked curiously.

"Only Ten was straight. Or maybe straight is the wrong word. Ten was _fixated_ on Rose, to the point where he didn't have room to be attracted to anyone or anything else. Gender didn't come into it. Rose was the person that he loved, and that was that."

"How come you sometimes refer to your past selves as 'I', and sometimes as 'he'?" Amy asked.

"Because they really are different people. But when I'm referring to memories of what I've done and experienced, then it's slightly different. And Ten referred to Nine as if he was him, because he wanted to remind Rose that he was still the same person, and it just became habit. Plus, it helps that Nine didn't fight regeneration, and he didn't regret it. He rather happily skipped into regenerating so that he could become someone that was more worthy of Rose's love. Ten fought. He regretted everything, but he still didn't want to regenerate. Egotism."

The Doctor smirked at her. Finally, they had arrived at the TARDIS, and he held the door open so that she could go inside.

Pete's World

Rose Tyler was happy. For the first time in a long time, she was truly happy. She and her Doctor were getting married. She smiled at him as her father handed her over to her groom, and grinned at the sight of his red converse trainers, which looked absolutely ridiculous paired with his tux. But somehow, so _very him_.

He grinned infectiously at her. She knew that her mum had had an absolute _cow_ when she had heard that he had insisted on the trainers. But she lifted the skirts of her wedding dress, showing him her own pair of trainers. When you went on adventures with the Doctor, you had to be ready to run for life and limb. And marriage was the biggest adventure of all.

They said their vows and kissed in front of the crowd, and then her mum came over, sobbing and telling them that they had to get to the reception.

"Did you help plan it?" the Doctor asked Rose in an undertone.

"No," she muttered back. "Don't care, frankly. I was surprised that you agreed to the actual wedding."

Jackie was still blathering on about bouquet tosses and first dances, and, oh, "you'll have to dance with me, Doctor, since I'm the closest thing that you have to a mother," she was saying. Rose and the Doctor exchanged horrified looks.

"Run?" Rose asked.

"Run," the Doctor agreed. Then they linked hands, as they always had, and bolted for the side doors of the church, Rose's massive fluffy dress trailing behind them in the mud as they burst outside, Jackie's shrieking echoing behind them.

They were running to the nearest park, since Rose had decided that she needed to play on a playground in her wedding dress, just so that she could say that she had done it when it happened. They both sort of... faded, for a moment. They went sort of translucent, both of them, before fading back into reality.

Without saying anything and by mutual agreement, they turned directions to the Torchwood HQ. It might be nothing, but whatever it was, they had to know.

Two hours of both of them buried in samples, theories and pieces of the dimension cannon later, they came to the conclusion that scared them both beyond all else.

"Paradox," they said simultaneously.

"But not here," the Doctor said. "My other self has done something, and possibly managed to stabilize the paradox. But he's done something that will cause you never to fall into this dimension, and possibly it'll also cause me never to have existed—but even if I did exist, he wouldn't have put me _here_."

"You're him," Rose said. "What would you have done?"

"Nothing!" the Doctor said. "You'll notice that, no matter how much I wanted to, I didn't create a paradox after you ended up here to begin with. Unless he regenerated. He might've been more brash, more desperate, maybe he had less impulse control. Who knows."

"So, he probably regenerated. But what did he _do_?" Rose demanded. "And what's going to happen to us?"

"If I were to guess, he went back in time to when you were a child and warned you, or something of the like. And as for what'll happen to us? I don't see reapers, so it isn't a wound in time, just a change in time. I'd imagine that people's memories will slowly start to change, so that they don't include us, and then one day we just won't be here anymore, and nobody will remember us being here."

"But,_ us_, Doctor, what'll happen to _us_. Our memories, our adventures—everything that happened to _us_ when we ended up here?"

"It could go two ways, really," he said doubtfully. "We could simply cease to exist, and be replaced by whatever he's done, or we'll get integrated into our other selves. They'll remember both sets of timelines. Or, in my case, three sets of timelines—mine, his, and the new one."

"So, we could be dying," Rose stated bluntly. "_You and me_, the ones who just got married, could be dying and disappearing."

"Could be. I think that it's more likely that the timelines will integrate. You'll go back to him. You'll never have left him."

"And I would have thought that was a good thing, before the twenty-seven planets. He just... _dumped_ me back here! He didn't care what I wanted, he just left me here! He promised! You promised, and you didn't. Sarah Jane came, and I asked if that was the future—if he just got bored and left. And he—you—said 'not to you'. But then after the way that I fought to get back to him, he just left, and he couldn't even grow enough of a pair to tell me how he felt!" Rose raged.

The Doctor stayed quiet. This was a familiar enough track, and had been for a long time.

"And now he thinks that he can just _change _it all, and I'll forget?"

"I don't think that he really means it like that, Rose," the Doctor tried. "He loves you. He tried to give you _me_, but he's a selfish old man when it comes down to it. If he had the opportunity—well, there was a reason that I never shamelessly stalked your childhood, no matter how much I wanted to. Aside from the fact that that would be creepy, it was because I wouldn't have had the willpower to stop myself. And even if he regenerated into a tentacle monster, that wouldn't have changed."

"A younger me would have run screaming from a tentacle monster," Rose said doubtfully, gathering her overly floofy skirt into her hands and sitting down in the nearest chair.

"Expression, darling," the Doctor said fondly. "The _point_ is that if he forgot where he was, or had to go to that area of London by accident, or you were on a field trip, and he ran into a younger version of you, he would do more than say hi."

"He _did_ run into a younger version of me, once," Rose said. "I _remember _it. It took me awhile, but I remembered one day. It was New Years, the year that I met you. He was in the shadows—I could barely see him, but he didn't look good. I thought that he was drunk and asked if he was alright, and he asked what year it was. When I told him, he told me that I was going to have a really great year."

"He was dying," the Doctor said solemnly. "That would be the only thing that would cause him to cross his own timeline like that on purpose. He wasn't drunk, he was regenerating, delirious over whatever was killing him. And he needed to see you one last time. He wouldn't have had _time _to tell you anything, let alone do anything to stabilize the paradox."

"Oh, God," Rose murmured, burying her face in her hands. "_Why_?"

"I don't know, Rose." He leaned forward and took his wife's hands in his.

"I love _you_. He had his chance. Multiple chances."

"I'm _him_. And, as he said about me, once upon a time, he needs you. And that's very us. He was terrified of you leaving him, of you ageing and dying, or getting killed on an adventure. He knew you would leave him eventually, even if you didn't choose to, and didn't want to get involved any further because he was terrified that it would hurt even worse when you were inevitably gone."

"I'd still be inevitably gone," Rose said grumpily.

"That's the thing, I don't think that you will," the Doctor finally said. "I've had suspicions. Remember when you got stabbed by that pike sword when we were trying to negotiate a peace treaty with the Karkash people? You collapsed, but then you got back up as if nothing was wrong, and everyone just figured that you had backed out of the way, that it hadn't gotten you as deeply as we had thought."

"Well, that's what happened," Rose said, confused.

"I thought so too, at the time. But little things. Like this." He held up a Russian book that had been sitting on the desk. "I found this at a used boutique the other day, lovely place, most fascinating history—"

"_Doctor_," Rose said heatedly.

"It translates to 'Bad Wolf'. And it isn't just that—I've been seeing it everywhere now."

Rose stared at him in horror.

**Here's another chapter. Wow, I spent **_**way**_** more time on Eleven and gang, then on Rose and Ten II than I did on Nine and Rose. Which is for good reason. There are lots of fics that rewrite the episodes. I don't want to do that. Just assume that they've operatively stayed the same, and that Rose really hasn't had the control over events enough to change them, which is why I'll be skipping large portions of series one and smaller but still substantial portions of series two, so that we can get to the part where things really start to get different.**

**Next Time: Nine and Rose meet Captain Jack Harkness for the first time, Eleven mopes as spectacularly as his ninth incarnation was capable of doing at times (sorry, broods), and Amy beats some sense into him. We find out some more about River's motivations, and Rose and Ten II revive the dimension cannon so that they can hop universes and find Eleven and Rose can give him a piece of her mind.**

**There won't be much more in the way of series five related plot developments—this is taking place over a matter of weeks, given the way that Eleven built the paradox machine. And yes, paradox machine. That's how the entire universe hasn't fallen apart. And yes, I've been planning that since the beginning. I had originally planned to drag it further, and not reveal it until later, but it fit so very well into that little scene with River that I couldn't help myself.**


	5. The Empty Child

The tall man in the pinstriped suit with messy hair and trainers and the attractive, curvy bottle-blonde with a blue leather jacket, tight jeans and black heeled boots appeared out of thin air without breaking their motion. Anyone who saw it just blinked, before turning away, entirely sure that they had imagined the pair appearing just moments before. They simply continued walking as if nothing had happened.

Their hands were easily entwined, and they moved with a familiarity that spoke of a close relationship with no secrets between them. Synchrony, the perfect harmony. Two people who were simultaneous best friends and lovers, people who had lust and passion and lasting friendship.

Rose breathed the air in _her_ universe, the place that she had been born, the place where she had first met a man with big ears and a leather jacket who grabbed her hand and told her to run. According to the Doctor, the dimension cannon had only worked because they were fading away anyway, slipping into a timestream that had never existed.

_And_, it appeared that the theoretical improvements that the Doctor had made to the dimension cannon's coding after the twenty-seven planets actually worked, because there was the TARDIS, parked off the road on a grassy patch in the middle of London.

"Shall we give him a heart attack?" Rose threw at _her_ Doctor, the one who had stayed with her, told her how he felt, _married _her.

"He's got two hearts, I'm sure he can handle it," the Doctor said back, throwing her a grin.

Rose pulled the chain off her head that she had never taken off, not since he had given it to her—her TARDIS key, and opened the door. A pretty and unfamiliar redhead girl was sitting with another redhead—an entirely familiar one who took one look at them and let out a loud shriek of surprise.

"Donna!" He released Rose's hand and bolted to his twin's side to catch her as she toppled off the chair. Rose grinned as he caught her and pulled her in for a desperate hug. Rose had had everything that she ever wanted, after all—her family, her father, _him_. But he hadn't. Donna was the only family that he had, and she knew that he had missed her dearly.

"Oi, spaceman!" Donna snapped. "Let me down, and explain what's going on."

"Weeelllll," he said, letting her down as requested. "Whatever he did," at this, he lunged across the control room and pulled out a massive, clonky looking contraption that was hooked into the TARDIS and emitting red light. "A-ha! Paradox machine!" He waved it triumphantly. "But a paradox can only exist in a single universe, see? And Rose and I, we were _from_ this universe, and tangled into the paradox, but in another universe where the paradox machine couldn't protect us. Soooo, we were basically fading away. There aren't holes in the universe again, see? We got through because we only half existed, so it was easier to transport us across the void. By the time that we got this baby up and running, we were almost entirely gone."

"Pete and Mum didn't really notice us at all," Rose said soberly. "And when they did, they seemed to think that Mum had gone to Pete's World during Canary Wharf and I stayed with the Doctor. Mum thought that she was seeing things, towards the end."

The Doctor immediately stowed the paradox machine away and crossed back to his wife's side to wrap her in a comforting embrace.

"Who are you people?" the other redhead finally demanded. "_You_ look really familiar, but for some reason I can't place where..." she was pointing at Rose.

"Don't suppose she was with him when he created the initial loop?" Rose asked rhetorically.

"What?"

"I'm Rose Tyler. You probably met me when I was a kid or something. Please don't blame me for the peroxide, it took me awhile to figure out that the shade was all wrong for me."

"Amy Pond," the girl said, staring and a little star struck. "But—if you're Rose Tyler, then that means that _you're_—"

"Half-human biological meta-crisis, at your service," the Doctor said cheerfully. "Previous regeneration, of course, I'm sure he looks completely different now. At least tell me he's ginger?"

"Nope," Donna broke in, cackling. "He had to find the next best thing: her. Gorgeous ginger spitfire. She beats him up, too."

"You're a gorgeous ginger spitfire," the Doctor said.

"Thank you. But you know that I had to leave."

"How much do you remember?"

"All of what happened, but as if I watched it in a film instead of experiencing it," Donna explained. "But I remember all of our adventures intact."

"That's brilliant! Where is he?"

"Out. You want to scare him out of his mind, don't you?"

"Would only serve him right," Rose flung back. "He scared _us_ out of our minds. There we were, running away from our wedding reception in the rain on the happiest day of my life, and then suddenly we just sort of—faded."

"But—you're Rose Tyler," Amy repeated, still looking a little lost. "He said that he never stopped loving you."

"I can vouch for that. I've never stopped loving her, and I'm him," the Doctor said cheerfully.

"He said that you were _made_ to love her," Amy shot back. "That you regenerated into what you did for her. You wanted to become someone worthy of her love, someone better for her, and you wanted to be something that she wanted. Of course you'll always love her, she's basically a piece of you!"

"Heh. Never thought about it that way," the Doctor said speculatively. "I suppose. But I just like to think that I'll love her forever." He grinned at her in that adorable, heart-stopping way of his—adoration, and attraction and just a little bit of giddiness—the way that he first looked at her after he regenerated and she called him Doctor.

_"So I'm still the Doctor, then?"_

_ "No arguments from me!"_

Rose smiled back, unable to avoid it, and Donna stared at them wistfully. "So that's what was missing, then."

"What do you mean?"

"The entire time that we travelled together, you never looked that happy," Donna said. "I mean, I knew that you had lost her and were hurting from that, but I never understood how much. But now, you two, together again? Now you're a whole man. Hold on, did you say you got married?"

"Surprise?" Rose said, holding out her left hand to display the ring around her finger. "Mum insisted on a massive ceremony. Only about a thousand of our closest friends." She rolled her eyes.

"Tell me all about it," Donna commanded. Amy immediately moved in, and the Doctor backed away from the three of them with an alarmed look on his face.

...

"I want a beach," Rose commanded.

"A beach!" The Doctor looked at her in horror. "Why do you want a beach?"

"Well, running for our lives is fun, and all, but I'd much rather have a nice, peaceful, relaxing day by the beach."

He grimaced.

"Come on. You must know some good beaches. On a far off, distant planet. Maybe a deserted one. With purple sand and clouds made of cotton candy."

"Rose," he said impatiently.

"Come on, Doctor! Just one day! Picture it! Lying on the beach, me in my swimsuit," she said leaning forward. "Sand and sun and tanning galore."

He swallowed, and she could nearly see the '_dirty old man_' mantra running through his head. He was _so_ attracted to her. And fond of her, and he let her get away with absolute murder. She came around the console and invaded his personal space.

"Beach, Doctor. I'm sure that you know some spectacular ones."

He gulped and backed away. She grinned at the sight of a badass in a leather jacket backing up as she advanced.

"Okay? Pick a beach, Doctor. A pretty one. And I'll go get my swimsuit on."

His future incarnation had flat-out stated that she probably wouldn't get anywhere romantically with this incarnation—that he was too hardened, that he had lost too much, and that he would keep her at arm's length in an attempt to protect her from himself.

But that didn't mean that she couldn't tease him.

...

The Doctor finished picking up groceries (yes, the TARDIS needed groceries), and wandered back to the TARDIS, unlocked the door. He opened it up and went inside without looking, figuring that Amy and Donna were probably hanging around, and if not they must be in the library or something.

He set the groceries down. Amy liked to put them away, or she said that he was liable to keep milk in the cupboard and cereal in the fridge.

There was giggling behind him. He turned to face Amy and Donna, and nearly fell on his face when he saw the blonde with them. They hadn't even noticed his entrance.

Rose. That was Rose, not the child, Rose, but the adult, the one that had built a dimension cannon, that had stood up to Davros holding his hand as if nothing had changed and no time had passed.

"They're talking about weddings." And, oh, hell, that was his old face. That was his meta-crisis clone. Handy smirked, and the Doctor gaped. "They've been at it for hours. It's terrifying, I'm just sort of hiding, and hoping that they don't notice me."

"How..."

"You don't think things through, do you?" Handy asked, mildly rebuking. "It didn't even occur to you that a paradox is contained in a single universe, even when the elements of that paradox are outside of it."

"I still don't understand."

"There were three people there when you created the paradox. You, Rose and Amy. But I'm _you_. That means that I'm part of it, too. And without the paradox machine to temporarily protect us from the effects of the paradox, we just started fading away."

"Oh," he muttered. Whoops. He hadn't even thought about the current version of Rose, entirely hung up on preventing that version of Rose from ever existing in the first place. But her entire life had probably broken down—people's memories, their physical forms, everything.

"You scared us half to death," Handy added cheerfully. "But if I were you, I'd be scared now, because Rose has been working up quite the head of steam. She's pissed at you. As soon as they extract themselves from wedding talk and she notices that you're here, she's going to lose it."

"What do you mean? Why's she mad at me?"

"This regeneration is sort of oblivious, isn't it?" Handy asked rhetorically. "You left her. Yes, you left her with me, but you still walked away."

Oh. He had figured that she would get over that when she saw how much better Handy was for her. But then, Jack had yelled at him for that move, too. Oh, dear, she was going to rip some skin off, wasn't she?

"You broke all of our hearts that day on the beach," Handy continued. "Except Jackie, seeing as she was perfectly happy with the turn of events, aside from ending up in bloody Norway, again. But the rest of us—you walked away from Rose, from me. You broke your own heart, you broke Rose's, and I'm a _meta-crisis clone_, did it not occur to you that I'm meant to be _near_ you? Plus, you took the TARDIS away from me, and Donna, who may be like a sister to you, but she's _literally_ my twin."

The Doctor swore under his breath.

"Yeah," Handy muttered.

"I just—it didn't even occur to me. I knew that I was hurting her, but being with you would eventually soothe it. And I knew that you wouldn't want to be away from the TARDIS, but I would have given up the TARDIS for the chance to grow old with her, so I knew that you would too. And Donna, well we were all losing Donna. I thought that the only heart that I was _truly _breaking was my own."

"And that didn't matter at all, did it?" His clone, his twin, his _brother_, said wryly. "As long as everyone else got better, what happened to you didn't matter. Because you're always fine."

He stared.

"You forget that I'm _you_. I know how you tick."

"You're wearing a bowtie," the voice, that voice, God, _Rose_. She had broken away from the others, and was staring at him. Donna, so much more well versed in the female mind than him, settled back to watch the show. Amy stared hungrily, obviously anticipating some sort of romantic reunion.

"Bowties are cool," he said defensively.

"I knew that it was you. Nobody but you, in any form, would ever think that that outfit should see the light of day," Rose said, stepping forward.

"Oi!" He and his clone protested simultaneously.

"Don't worry baby," she soothed his clone. "You've got me to talk you out of the more horrifying fashion choices. Oh, don't look at me like that, either of you, I've seen pictures. Does the number _six_ ring a bell?"

Both he and Handy winced. His sixth incarnation had committed absolute fashion _murder_.

"And five wore celery on his coat lapel like some sort of boutonniere," Rose continued.

"There was a purpose to that!" He said indignantly.

"No, there wasn't. It was a decorative vegetable, and you know it. He told everyone who asked that there was a purpose, but there wasn't. Like the glasses," Handy said. Traitor.

Rose snorted. Then she crossed the distance between them, pulled him down, and kissed him. Then she stepped back before he could respond, and smacked him as hard as she could across the face.

"Ow! You slap harder than your mother!" He said indignantly.

Handy and Donna both snickered, and Amy stared at them with her mouth hanging open.

"Well, for once you get slapped by someone who isn't someone's mother," Handy said helpfully.

"What, you mean that it wasn't just mine?" Rose asked, crossing to his clone and curving against his side. He slid his arm around her with easy intimacy.

"Martha and Donna, both their mothers had their moments. Martha's Mum especially. Didn't have to make her disappear for a year to make that woman start walloping. But then, the Master had been talking to her, so you can't really blame her. To this day, I'm not sure what he told her," Handy said, dropping a kiss atop Rose's golden hair.

The jealousy that ripped through him nearly knocked him over. To be allowed to show casual affection like that for Rose, affection that could be beyond friendship? He'd always wanted that. Rose was oblivious. Handy looked at him with eyes that said that he knew exactly what he felt.

Then Rose slipped out from under Handy's arm and backed the Doctor against the wall again. "What. Did. You. Do?" She snarled.

"I-I-I—paradox, I went back to when you were fourteen and told you all about our adventures," he babbled.

"Why?"

"Because I couldn't lose you again," he finally admitted.

"Rose," Handy said mildly. He caught her hand as she went to slap the Doctor again.

"I have a question," Donna butted in. "What do we _call_ you?"

"John," Handy said. "Call him Doctor, since he's the real Doctor. _I_ am John Noble, you know, since humans generally require a more specific name than Doctor."

"Some man named John Noble, showing up out of the blue and proposing to the Vitex heiress," Rose said, laughing. "The press thought that he was a useless gold digger. But since I'm not nearly the empty-headed heiress that they were quick to presume that _I_ am, it makes sense that my husband isn't who they think he is, either."

Oh, right. Rose's father was _really_, _really_ rich. The press had probably mercilessly stalked them wherever they went. He paused to think about that, to consider how he would have dealt with that, had he ever had to. To consider how Handy—_John_—would have dealt with that. Wow, John. Of course, whenever he had to adopt a human name, that was what he used, so of course his double had chosen John. And Noble—well, of course he had chosen Noble as a last name—he himself had just said that Donna was as good as his twin.

Donna seemed to realize this as well. "You took my name," she said softly.

"I did. Sister."

They grinned at each other, clicking in a way that only people that shared bits of a brain could. Rose smiled indulgently and hung off of John's hand.

Amy eyed them all, and, obviously feeling confused and out of place, said, "I'm getting married in the morning."

"You ran away with me on the night before your wedding?" the Doctor asked incredulously. "Hold on. Marrying the good looking one? Or the other one?"

"The other one," Amy said, glaring at him. "_Rory_. He's a nurse and I'm marrying him tomorrow."

"Tomorrow being..."

"The twenty-sixth of June, 2010," Amy said haughtily. The Doctor's eyes went wide with horror.

"We have to get you sorted out, Amelia Pond. Right now. Come along!"

"What?"

"What?"

"What?"

John, Rose, Donna and Amy were all shocked at how important he seemed to think that this was.

He glanced at his options before latching onto John, the only person currently on the TARDIS who would understand what the hell he was talking about. "There are cracks. In space and time itself. Something has been exploding, all over time, and June 26th, 2010 is the origin point of the explosion."

"A big temporal event?"

"We dumped a bunch of Weeping Angels into the latest one that we encountered."

"That would do it," John agreed. "For a bit. But we have to stop the explosion itself if we're going to get anywhere, or else space and time itself will dissolve. I just love things that will make it so that the entire multiverse will have never existed, don't you?"

"What does that mean?" Rose demanded.

"Something important exploded, or is exploding or will explode on June 26th, 2010," John said quickly. Though why he was wasting his time, the Doctor didn't know. Rose... he loved Rose, but she didn't exactly have a degree in temporal physics.

"And the resulting fissures are eating the entire universe," Rose finished. The Doctor stared at her.

"When did you get a degree in temporal physics?"

"Three years ago," Rose said irritably. "PhD, by the way."

"You're a doctor?" he looked at her in wonder, unable to keep from grinning. "Brilliant."

"Torchwood sort of rushed me through the process," Rose explained. "How do you think that we built the dimension cannon to begin with? Thirteen of Torchwood's top scientists. Half mad, egotistical geniuses, to boot. The head thought that I would be absurdly well qualified to deal with them. Something about prior experience..."

"Oi!" He and John both blurted out, John sounding more affectionate and less irritated.

"So, what does this have to do with Amy's wedding?" Donna finally broke in.

"I don't know. But somehow, this is all about her."

"He's right. Just look, Donna, at the way that the timelines are twisting around her." John said. "Can't you see it?"

"Not really. Hauling out the DoctorDonna gives me a headache," Donna answered.

"Her house is too big," the Doctor said. "That's why I took her with me, her house is too big. And there was a crack in her wall. And she doesn't _have_ parents, that's what you told me when I first encountered you when you were seven. Not, they passed away, or they died, or they left me with my aunt for some reason; 'I don't _have_ parents,' that's what you said."

Amy's eyebrows had gone sort of crooked. "You mean..."

"Your parents, they were consumed by the crack in the wall. It's the only explanation. Big, dusty old house, just you and your aunt? Your aunt wouldn't have moved you to Leadworth. Not to a house that big. Your life just doesn't fit together, Amelia Pond with a name like a fairytale."

"Oh, God," Amy muttered, stumbling back.

"And somehow, this is _all_ about you."

...

"It's a distress signal!"

"How do you know that?"

"It's mauve, that's the universal signal for distress," the Doctor shouted. "And we're following it down!" He whooped, and Rose echoed him, grasping the console to steady herself.

"What happened to red?" She asked.

"Oh, that's just earth," the Doctor said dismissively. "To the rest of the universe, red means camp. Results in some confusion, let me tell you. Hold on tight, Rose!"

The TARDIS finally landed, and the Doctor lunged out the doors. "Where is it?" Rose wanted to know. "How are you going to find it? Can you do, like, a scan for alien tech or something?"

He laughed. "Rose, big purple thing falling from the sky? I'm gonna _ask_." Then Rose remembered where and when they were, and why he wouldn't get a very good reaction to asking about things that had fallen from the sky.

The people certainly wouldn't appreciate that in the middle of the London Blitz.

"Doctor," she said. "Where are we? _When_ are we?"

"Ah—I should probably check that, shouldn't I?" Rose snickered as he determined that they were in London, 1941, and that he probably shouldn't go wandering around asking about things that were falling from the sky. He had gone back into the TARDIS to get a decent picture of the distress signal when she heard the voice—a child, calling for his mother.

Of course she followed it, and found a kid atop a building looking down. She climbed the ladder, and then hoisted herself onto the convenient rope that was hanging over the side of the building—and remembered that it was attached to a barrage balloon only once she was dangling over London and the bombs started falling.

She shrieked, and called for the Doctor, who had obviously wandered off, before finally settling down. Jack. Jack would save her, she just had to hang on long enough for him to find her.

Several kilometers away, a charming RAF captain was focussing his binoculars at the figure of an attractive girl dangling from a barrage balloon, wearing jeans and t-shirt with a Union Jack plastered on the front. Clearly not from around here—Time Agent if he ever saw one.

"Sorry, Algy, I have to go meet a girl," he said absently, jogging out the door in the direction of Big Ben. "But you have an excellent bottom, too," he threw over his shoulder.

Rose had been hanging on for quite some time when she couldn't cling anymore. Just as she let go, she was enveloped in a beam of blue light. Jack. An American accented voice called up to her, telling her to just keep still, keep her hands and feet inside of the beam and could she please turn off her cell phone?

Oh, that was comforting. And he was _flirting_ with her, while she was dangling over London! She was going to _kill_ him, just as soon as she turned him immortal. God, she felt like she knew him already. Like she knew him and loved him and...

There she was in his arms. He had caught her, just like she always expected of Jack Harkness, a man that she had never met. Well. She had seen a man that looked remarkably like him around the estate when she was growing up, and she had been looking more recently. That he had never stopped watching over her warmed her heart.

"This is psychic paper," she said, handing it back to him. "It shows me whatever you want me to see."

"And why would you think that?"

"First, I have a friend that uses this stuff all the time, and second, you just handed me a piece of paper that says that you're single and work out."

"Ah, psychic paper. Have to be careful when you're handing it over, make sure that your mind doesn't wander. You know, I thought that you were a Time Agent, but no Time Agent would be stupid enough to have that sort of timeline tie-up," Jack said, smiling charmingly and handing her a glass of wine. "Something that you need to tell me?" Uh-oh. This was very much _not_ _good_. Jack had thought that she was a Time Agent last time. The only thing that it could be—oh, what was that scan that his Vortex Manipulator had done?

"Excuse me? I just met you?" She said, frantically trying to cover.

"Oh? Then why do you trust me so much?"

"What makes you think that I trust you?"

He flashed the psychic paper at her. _Jack, I trust you_. Well, shit.

"I can't tell you," Rose blurted. "I can't—"

"Tell me where you came from and how you got here." Jack Harkness was dangerous. She cursed herself for forgetting that.

"My name is Rose Tyler. I'm from twenty-first century, London. And I came here with a Time Lord."

"Time Lords are a myth," Jack said, frowning. "A big bad boogeyman that the Agency publicised to prevent us from risking timeline jackups."

"No," Rose said. "They're not. You haven't encountered any recently because they're all dead but one—or actually there are two or three—but one is trapped in human form at the end of the universe, you'll meet him eventually, and the other isn't born yet. Sort of. It's really confusing. And we aren't even sure that River Song _is_ a Time Lord, the Doctor didn't know. He doesn't know much about her at all, really. But I'm getting off track. I'm travelling with a Time Lord."

"Okay," Jack said, furrowing his brow. "Say you're telling the truth about the Time Lord. The paradox knots around you, a Time Lord—if he even exists—would be able to see them."

"He can't, because it's a paradox of his own creation," Rose explained. "I was fourteen when I first met the Doctor. He was from the future. Because at some point while I'm travelling with the current Doctor, I'll get locked in a parallel dimension. And he was trying to prevent it from happening, so he told me everything in hopes that I'll prevent it. And he told me to trust you. Because he'll trust you in the future. It's really confusing and complicated and I really can't tell you anymore, because it might change the things that we need to stay the same."

He arched an eyebrow.

"And why should I believe you?"

"You came here to con Time Agents," Rose answered flatly. "You left the Agency when you discovered that they'd erased two years of your memories, stole your Vortex Manipulator and ran. Now, you have an empty Chula ambulance that you put at the crash site of a bomb during the blitz. Your plan is to find a Time Agent that's interested in buying it and sell it to them for a ridiculous amount of money, and then let the bomb destroy it. A self-cleaning con, I believe you call it."

"You know things about me—I'm not denying that you're telling the truth about the paradox. But maybe me and your Time Lord friend are enemies in the future, and you're trying to get me to trust you so that you can cut me off at the knees," Jack said suspiciously.

Rose reached up and laid a hand on his face. "I'm sorry, Jack. I'm so, so sorry for what I'm going to do to you, and I deserve your hatred for it."

"What are you going to do to me?"

"I'm going to save your life."

Jack gave her a very funny look, and Rose shook her head. "Please, for everything that the Time Agency has taught you, pretend that you think that he and I are Time Agents, Jack," she begged.

He agreed, though she made him leery. He didn't see how saving his life could possibly warrant such a heartfelt apology.

He didn't know until he'd figured out that he couldn't die what she had been talking about. And he hated her for it, for awhile. But she was still _Rose_, and he couldn't hate her. Not when she had shown him how to love in the first place.

**So, in some secret part of myself, I ship Doctor/Rose/Jack, and it's coming out here. But the important thing is that Jack cares very deeply for Rose, and loves her very much, but he isn't **_**in love**_** with her, and that is an important distinction.**


	6. Boom Town

**So, you may or may not have noticed that I changed the title. I would like to state for absolute certainty that this is the story that used to be called Timey Wimey Stuff—which was a really stupid title—it was only temporary until I managed to find one that I liked. The title that I picked, With Starlight in Their Wake, comes from The Fires of Pompeii—one of the seers says, "This one is different—he carries starlight in his wake." So, there you go. Title!**

**Well, off you go! Read the chapter. **

**This is Boom Town. You might ask why I chose to do Boom Town, since nothing all that important or incidental happened during Boom Town. Two reasons: first of all, Boom Town actually happens to be one of my favourite episodes and I couldn't resist, secondly because there's a scene in there that most definitely didn't take place in Boom Town. You will recognize it when you see it, and I really wanted to do that scene.**

**So! On with the story! For real this time—ignore the aborted start above this. The backspace button's so boring, isn't it?**

Mickey Smith knocked sharply on the door of the massive blue police box that nobody seemed to have noticed parked in the middle of Cardiff. He expected it to be answered by the Doctor or Rose, but instead he was greeted by a dark haired man.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Who the hell am _I_? Who the hell are you?"

"Captain Jack Harkness," the man said. Mickey watched him in disbelief. This man _moved_ like a player. Mickey didn't even remotely swing that way, and the way that the man was moving his hands made him horny. He was suddenly very worried about Rose, being anywhere near him.

"Get out of the way," Mickey said, shoving past him. Rose greeted him happily with a hug.

"So, what's up with Captain Cheesecake, here?" Mickey finally demanded.

"Jack's from the fifty-first century," Rose said. "They manufacture pheromones—just ignore it and you'll get used to it." Mickey choked.

"_Pheremones_? You let her hang around with someone who oozes manufactured pheromones?" Mickey demanded of the Doctor, who was halfway up a ladder. He was supposed to trust this guy with Rose's safety? And he was _still_ confused about the guy with the floppy hair and bowtie that had knocked on his door five years back to inform him that Rose was in danger—he had claimed to be called Doctor, too.

The Doctor laughed. "I don't _let_ her do anything, Ricky-boy. She does what she wants."

"It's _Mickey_."

"Sure it is," the Doctor said, in that familiar tone that said that Mickey was such an idiot that he had clearly forgotten his own name.

"Don't listen to him, he's just winding you up," Rose said, stepping back into Mickey's arms.

"Aw, sweet! Look at these two. Why don't I ever get any of that?" Jack whined.

"Buy me a drink first." Mickey tried very hard not to stare at the Doctor flirting with Jack. It just seemed so out of character, that the brusque, rough man would let his guard down enough to flirt with another person. He also tried very hard not to think about the Doctor's interactions with Rose. He had long gotten over his crush on Rose—she had never done anything to encourage him, after all, and there were plenty of girls out there. He had met a pre-med student just the other day, named Martha Jones who was going to school in London and trying to pick out a hospital to do her practicum at. She had given him her number, and he figured that he might call her up and ask if she wanted to go for coffee. But the fact remained that he cared a lot for Rose, and the Doctor was way too old for her, way too dangerous to know, and she was slightly besotted with him. It added up to a bad combination when it was finally over.

He had done his research. The Doctor never stuck around, and once he'd left he never came back. Rose was going to get her heart broken.

"So _difficult_," Jack flung at the Doctor.

"But worth it," the Doctor flung back.

"What are you lot doing in Cardiff, anyway? Rose said that she wanted her passport—here it is, by the way—but it just seems so _normal_ for you."

"We just stopped off. We need to refuel. The thing is, Cardiff's got this rift running through the middle of the city. It's invisible, but it's like an earthquake fault between different dimensions," Rose started, pulling away from Mickey.

"The rift was healed back in 1869," the Doctor continued, flinging the wrench that he was holding down.

"Thanks to a girl named Gwyneth, because these creatures called the Gelth, they were using the rift as a gateway but she saved the world and closed it," Rose added.

"But closing a rift always leaves a scar, and that scar generates energy, harmless to the human race," Jack continued.

"But perfect for the TARDIS, so just park it here for a couple of days right on top of the scar and  
open up the engines, soak up the radiation," Nine said, picking up the sentence where Jack had left off.

"Like filling her up with petrol and off we go!" Rose blurted exaltedly.

"Into time!" Jack said.

"And space!" All three yelled in unison.

"My God, have you seen yourselves? You all think you're so clever, don't you?" Mickey said incredulously.

"Yeah." The Doctor said.

"Yeah." Rose.

"Yep!" Jack.

Mickey winced. It really was painful to watch. They all piled out of the TARDIS and onto the street.

"Right. It should take about twenty-four hours, so we've got time to kill."

"That old lady's staring," Mickey pointed out, eyeing the woman that was gaping at them with astonishment.

"Probably wondering what four people were doing, crammed into a tiny little box like that," Jack suggested, grinning. This guy was _travelling_ with Rose? Mickey _really_ didn't like this.

"What are you Captain of, the Innuendo Squad?" Mickey wanted to know, glaring at Jack.

"Whatever," Jack said, turning away. "Not the first time that I've gotten the 'hands off the blonde' look."

Jack then gave Rose an immeasurable look. Was he—_afraid_—of her? Why would he ever be afraid of her? Afraid of her, and loving of her, and just a little bit in awe of her, maybe.

Sort of the way that he himself looked at the Doctor, minus the loving bit. But afraid and in awe? That summed up his feelings for the Doctor in a heartbeat. But why would Jack see Rose that way—as a mysterious, powerful, awesome thing? She was just a shop girl from the twenty-first century, surely Jack had seen more impressive things than her. He didn't seem to have the same feelings for the Doctor.

But then Jack looked at the Doctor, too. Wistfully, almost. Enviously. Mickey shook his head. He didn't _want_ to know about these people's dirty laundry.

They went for lunch at a little restaurant by the water, and Mickey laughed at Jack's stories. Rose told them too—stories of alien revolutions and far away worlds, of prison cells and hopping and running for her life, and Jack had him on the edge of his seat with his tales of Time Agents and travels through the stars, cons during the London Blitz and battles with blasters.

He didn't even notice that the Doctor had gotten up until he slammed the newspaper in front of them. It featured a picture of one of those green aliens in skin suits that had tried to turn the earth into nuclear waste six months ago.

"And I was having _such_ a nice day," the Doctor snarled. Mickey mentally echoed the sentiment.

...

She shouldn't be doing this. She _really_ shouldn't be doing this. She _really_, _really_ shouldn't be doing this. But she was anyway. She had slipped away from the Doctor, Jack and Mickey, and she was standing on a part of pavement next to the vertical waterfall of a building that had a perception filter on it. She figured that she only had about thirty seconds before the occupants of Torchwood 3 realized that she was there and sent someone out, wondering how she had found their secret base.

She was wrong—they didn't send someone out. The platform activated and the stone started dropping into the ground. He was standing there, watching her descent, and Rose winced.

"I'm sorry," she said, as the lift stuttered to a stop. "I'm so very sorry, Jack. Please forgive me."

He just looked at her for a moment, looking exactly the same as the version of him that she had just left, but somehow impossibly _older_, too.

"Always," he finally said, opening his arms. Rose hurled herself into them and clung to him, burying her face where his neck met his shoulder and holding on for dear life.

"Jack, all that I'm saying is that we should check her out, that's all," a pretty Asian girl said, wandering into the room. "There were very suspicious circumstances, and even if you're right and there's nothing to worry about—oh, I'm sorry," she added, tone turning frigid. "I was under the impression that we didn't bring bits of fluff into our secret base to _canoodle _with them."

"Leave it, Tosh," Jack snapped. "Don't go out. Don't research Margaret Blaine. Don't check the CCTV. And if you _ever_ call Rose a _bit of fluff_ again, you will be very sorry."

"Jack, that was unnecessary," another woman said. "You've been very strange, ever since that woman was elected, and you're being doubly strange today. And I don't know who your little girl is, but she doesn't belong in here."

"_Leave it_, Suzie," Jack snarled. He released Rose and cradled her hand in his, and pulled her through his rather impressive secret base with their fingers laced together.

"This is your office?" Rose finally asked.

"Yeah," Jack agreed.

"You seem to have done well for yourself," she finally said timidly.

"Stop it, Rose. Don't be this way. Please. Just, tell me what you know. Tell me everything that you can't tell that other me up there."

"I don't know everything," Rose finally said. "Just that the Doctor—you know about regeneration, right?"

"Yes," Jack said. "Myths, and legends, mostly about Time Lords changing their faces."

"Yes, well, when I was fourteen, a version of him that doesn't exist yet came to me and told me all about our adventures. Torchwood 1, in London, is playing with the void. They've got a tear between dimensions. And when the Doctor and I go there to stop the army of Cybermen that start invading through the rift, I fell through and got trapped in another universe."

"When?"

"July 1st, 2006."

"I'll be there. I'll get an excuse to go to London, and I'll be there beside you."

"Thank you," Rose murmured. Jack got up and offered her a hug again, and Rose breathed him in. "I should be getting back. You and the Doctor must be wondering where I've gotten to."

Jack traced her hair behind her ear and nodded. "They're getting pretty frantic with worry, alright."

"Can you remember this?"

"A bit. In the grand scheme of things, losing sight of you for ten minutes—not such a big deal. But I've got this." He flipped a screen out from under the desk. "Live feed." There they were—the Doctor, Mickey, and past!Jack, starting to look worried.

"I should go, then," Rose said reluctantly. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright, Rose," Jack said. "I hated you. For a long time—obviously, you'd known what was going to happen, and you let it. You _did_ it, even knowing that I would suffer for it. But I couldn't stay mad at you."

"I wish you could come with us now," Rose said. "How many years on the slow path? I'm sorry," she repeated uselessly. Sorry, sure, but she had still _done_ it. She had been sorry from the moment that the Doctor had told her what she was going to do to Jack, but she had gone ahead and cursed him to eternal life and then left him in the year 200 100, hadn't she? What sort of person _was_ she—a man with floppy hair and a bowtie came along and told her that he'd love her for all of time and offered her the universe, and she went ahead and started cursing men that she cared a great deal about to a fate worse than death and abandoned them 200 000 years in the future?

It didn't matter that she hadn't done it yet—the very fact that he was _here_ said that she was going to.

"Hey," Jack scolded mildly. "None of that. If you won't do everything that you have to stay with that man forever, then something is seriously wrong. The way that you look at him..."

"I don't remember you being that selfless."

"I'm not. Not for anybody but you."

Jack hugged her one more time, and smirked slightly as he took her face in his hands and pressed chaste lips to hers. "Rose Tyler, you are _worth fighting for_," he said. Then he put her onto the elevator and activated it with a press of buttons on his Vortex Manipulator.

She found Jack and Mickey out in the square, waiting for her. She mumbled some excuse about the washroom and followed them back into the TARDIS and rejoining the Doctor, who was securely holding Margaret the Slitheen in his grasp.

...

It had been a complete accident, kissing the Doctor. Honestly, she hadn't meant to. At all. She was the top advocate for his little relationship with Rose—even _Rose_ seemed to disapprove of what he had done. And his duplicate—well, his duplicate was complicated. It looked like he understood why he had done it, and even sympathized with his inability to resist, but he still seemed horrified by the paradox machine, and by the storm of changing timeline whirling around them.

She had been with the Doctor in the kitchen, and when he had started talking about Rose, she had gone to kiss him on the cheek when she had been trying to comfort him. Then he turned his head, and _awkward_.

And also, she was getting married tomorrow. Lovely.

Of course, discovering that the Doctor had leapt out of the cake at Rory's stag night and blurted out that she had kissed him? Not good. At all. The Doctor had herded Rory onto the TARDIS, babbling about romance and wedding gifts and arcade tokens—she was going to get him arcade tokens for _his_ wedding if he kept this up.

Because according to River, the Doctor, Donna, John and Rose, she would remember this. Nobody else would, except for her, Rose, and the Doctor (who would remember being John, too). But she would remember, and she would get that idiot man arcade tokens for a wedding present if he kept blathering on.

"Rory!" Amy bounced down the TARDIS stairs. "Oh, I missed you! You've met the Doctor, have you?"

"He said that you kissed him. Amy..."

"Oh my God, Rory, complete accident, I swear," Amy babbled, trying not to think of _the incident_, as she was already mentally referring to it. "I'll explain. But he's going to take us on a date, anywhere in time or space, Rory, isn't that amazing? This is Donna, she's cool, and Rose. The Doctor's in love with her."

The Doctor choked, John laughed and Rose just shook her head, slight, graceful smile curving her lips.

"This is her husband John; he's a clone of the Doctor's previous incarnation." Rory opened his mouth, but Amy covered it smoothly. "Don't ask. Really, really, don't."

"Trust me," Rose drawled. "I was there, and I _still _have a hard time wrapping my head around it."

"Oh, come on! It's not that hard!" The Doctor said cheerfully. "I was in a fight with the Sycorax, and I got my hand cut off."

At this, John lifted his right hand and wiggled his fingers. "Hello!"

"The hand fell off the spaceship, and our friend Jack—Amy, you met Jack!—found it and kept it in a jar on his desk for a year."

Rory choked.

"Then we found each other again, and Jack left the hand with me. And I got shot by a Dalek and started to regenerate. But I redirected the regeneration energy into the hand. And then later, Donna got trapped in the TARDIS and it was plummeting into the centre of the Dalek Crucible, and she touched it."

"And, bam! Me!" John said excitedly. "See? Easy. Any questions?"

"Yeah, one. Can we go back to the part where you thought that I asked, and pretend that I didn't?" Rory asked weakly.

"Oh, Rory," the Doctor sighed.

"So, where are we going to take them?" John asked eagerly. "Somewhere romantic."

"Barcelona?"

"Ehh... Dogs with no noses? Nah," John said. "Medusa Cascade?"

"Might be a bit much, for a first time traveller," the Doctor objected. "New Earth?"

John and the Doctor looked at each other for a split second before saying in unison, "No."

"_Or_," Rose interjected, still leaning against the outer wall of the TARDIS. "We could take them five billion years into the future to watch their planet get roasted, because we think we're so clever."

"That was a proper date! We had chips!" John protested.

"_I_ paid," Rose said mildly. "Cheapskate." She sauntered forward and grabbed John's tie, using it to haul him down her level and plant a very impressive snog onto him.

Amy and Rory blinked. The Doctor tilted his head and watched them exchange saliva at an alarming rate as if it were a particularly interesting science experiment. Donna let them snog for a moment, before she cleared her throat loudly.

"Sorry," John muttered. Rose just released his tie with a smirk.

"I'm not," she murmured.

"I'm not really, either," John added.

"So, Doctor! You went to see Jack?"

The Doctor sighed dramatically. "You want to go see Jack, don't you?"

"Oh, you know... Glenn Miller. Shadow of Big Ben. Jack can be very romantic when he wants to be." Rose smirked. "I've missed Jack."

"You're tormenting him on purpose, aren't you?" Donna asked.

"Pretty much, yeah," Rose agreed. "You can't deny that he deserves it."

"No, not at all."

"What did he do to deserve you tormenting him?" Rory wanted to know. "He abandoned Amy for twelve years."

"He locked me in a parallel world," Rose said airily.

"_Us_," John said, equally mildly. "He locked _us_ in a parallel world. No TARDIS, and I had to let Jackie Tyler plan my wedding." He shuddered.

Rose slapped him on the arm. "Oi! That's my mother you're talking about."

"And you thought it was just as painful as I did," John shot back. "All _you_ wanted to do was play on a playground in your wedding dress."

"Yeah... Never got to do it, either," Rose murmured. "Because _somebody's_ paradox made us fade out of existence, and we had to rush off to Torchwood to figure out what was going on." She stuck her tongue out at the Doctor.

"Fine," the Doctor said, sticking his tongue out at her in return. "If you know so well, where do _you_ think that we should take them?"

"Venice," Rose said instantly.

"Venice?" John and the Doctor said simultaneously, in exactly the same dubious tone.

"Yes, Venice. I don't care what time period, you pick. But Venice is romantic. There's glass and canals and gondola rides. Always wanted to go to Venice," she added absently. "But I never had the money, and then I met you, and there were so many more interesting and more important things to be doing."

"Huh," the Doctor said. "Why didn't you _say_ that you wanted to see Venice? I would have taken you to Venice."

"_Well_," Rose murmured. "I had rather had my fill of ancient Italy after I got turned into a statue, thank you."

"Ah-ha!" Amy shouted. "_That's_ why you look familiar, you look exactly like that statue of Fortuna downstairs!"

Rory turned and stared at her. "Long story," Rose dismissed, waving a hand. "I'm not actually Fortuna, I swear. Someone sculpted a statue after me, that's all."

"Someone. No appreciation—we made her into a goddess," John remarked.

"Venice it is!" The Doctor declared.


	7. Bad Wolf

She groaned and blinked, pushing herself up to survey her surroundings before collapsing back into a heap on the ground. "What?" She asked vaguely. She wasn't entirely sure what had happened, just that she had been in the TARDIS, and there was a light, and now she was here.

Then a black man was sitting beside her, pushing at her shoulder. "It's the transmit beam," he was saying. "Sort of scrambles you up. But you've got to get up soon."

Rose wrinkled her brow and tried to get her brain back. "I don't understand." Something—something important—was niggling at the edge of her consciousness. Then, all of her grogginess fell away, and realization hit her like a ton of bricks.

"Tell me that I'm not on the Gamestation," Rose begged of the black man. "_Tell me_!"

"Sorry," he said, shrugging. "We're on the Weakest Link."

Rose sagged back onto the floor. The Gamestation. The Bad Wolf. The Daleks, the Time War—and, of course, her Doctor was going to die. But—but—she didn't _want_ him to die! It wasn't fair! He didn't deserve to die—he had barely begun to live again, from what she had seen. And, of course, he'd still be the Doctor, but he wasn't going to be the same.

"What's your name?"

"Rose," she answered, cracking her head against the floor, _hard_. Why did it have to be now? She wasn't ready for him to go!

"I'm Roderick," the man said. "Come on, you've got to get up now."

"But—if this happens, he's going to _die_," she said desperately, clinging to Roderick's arm. "I'm not _ready _for him to change! He's my Doctor, I—I—I—" she cut herself off before she could finish that sentence.

"Look, I don't know who _you're_ worried about, but you're on the Weakest Link," Roderick advised her. "I'd worry about myself, if I were you."

She prepared herself to stand up, to find her podium and answer questions, and in the end, get taken hostage by the Daleks (but first watch all of these people _die_, how was that fair? How come there wasn't a way to save them?) when she heard a familiar, _very _comforting wheezing noise, and, not ten feet away from where she was, there was the TARDIS, materializing on the floor.

She was fairly certain that wasn't supposed to happen. That thought was confirmed when the doors burst open, and the Doctor sprang out—just not _her_ Doctor. The first Doctor that she had ever met, the Doctor with the bowtie and the floppy hair.

Roderick stared. _She_ stared, too, when, right on the Doctor's heels came _herself_ just looking a couple of years older. Her older self was clasping the hand of a skinny man in pinstripes with wild hair—that must be the clone, the duplicate, the Doctor that _her_ Doctor was about to regenerate into.

Amy followed her older self, along with a blond-ish man with a big nose, and another redheaded woman that she didn't know. But she could guess, based on the Doctor's stories. Donna Noble.

"Rose!" the Doctor said, delighted, like they had just happened to run into each other on a merry stroll in the park.

"You're an idiot," the redhead that Rose had deemed to be Donna Noble stated. "She's going to faint."

"I thought that you couldn't cross your own timeline?" Rose asked the first thing that popped into her head.

"I lied," the Doctor said, kneeling down next to her. "Extenuating circumstances. What're you doing on the floor?"

"Transmat beam scrambled my head right up," her older self answered wryly, kneeling on the other side. Wide-eyed, Rose noticed the rings adorning her older self's hand, and the matching wedding band that was placed on the other Doctor's finger. "Give her a minute."

"You're what he's going to be next, aren't you?" She asked, turning to her older self's husband.

"Uhmmm—kind of. Sort of. Maybe? One heart, me, so that'll be different. And—"

"Yes," her older self cut in smoothly.

"He talks a lot," she said, wide-eyed.

"Mmm," her older self said in agreement. "But that _tongue_. The things that he can do with that _tongue_."

"Well," he said, shrugging. "I try."

"Great hair, too," Rose-the-older said conversationally.

"Yeah," the Doctor added. "That was _great_ hair. Still miss it, sometimes."

"I bet that you miss everything about this body, seeing as you probably still get carded at the pub."

"Oi! It's not _that young_," the Doctor snapped back.

"You look about twelve," Amy interjected, kneeling at the Doctor's side. "But there must have been a _reason_ for coming here, you didn't just show up to argue over hair and age."

"Ah, right. I figured that you might be feeling some hesitation, knowing that Nine's going to regenerate," the Doctor said.

"He's going to _die_!" Rose said desperately. "And I understand that you're all the same man and all, but you're also not, you know?"

The Doctor and his clone exchanged mystified glances over her head, but Rose-the-older knew exactly what to do. "Yeah. The part of him that has big ears and wears leather and has a northern accent is _sort of_ going to die, but he's in there still, all the same. But you're allowed to miss him sometimes, you know? He's still your first Doctor. He's the one that grabbed your hand and said run, and that's the beginning of the story."

"Some things have to end," the duplicate added. "Else nothing would ever get started. But this, all of this, is to make sure that you never have to leave him."

"Plus, regeneration's a natural part of a Time Lord's life cycle. I'll admit that I've been going through them rather—ahem, quickly, but it's to be expected one day," the Doctor added. "Sides, he's pretty, isn't he?" He added, gesturing at his duplicate. "And the tongue—I remember having that tongue, it was talented."

_I will not blush, I will not blush_. It was hard. It was one thing, hearing her older self talk about sex with a man that she had _married_. It was entirely another for the Doctor to start tossing in on fringe benefits like the tongue on his previous incarnation.

"It isn't about _pretty_!" Rose said, finally deciding to dismiss the bit about tongues entirely and not address it at all.

"I know," the Doctor soothed. "I know. But it's still a nice consolation prize. Right, Rose?" He directed this question to her older self, who rolled her eyes but did not respond aloud.

"Rudeness is a quality that transcends regeneration," Donna said. "Come on, spaceman. Both of you. Give baby blondie a hug, and let's get going before we screw up the timelines in ways that they are not meant to be screwed.

She hugged the familiar Doctor first, and then the unfamiliar one—the one that was created _for her_. That would be for her. Then she hugged her older self, and all of her unexpected guests filed into the TARDIS and dematerialized.

Roderick, along with everyone else in the room, was staring at her incredulously. "Time travel?" She said, shrugging. "Look, I live a complicated life."

The coordinator eventually pulled herself together enough to get the show back on the air, and Rose felt a momentary welling of pure hatred for this woman who regarded forcing people to participate in their lethal games as her job. She had two options here—the Daleks needed her alive, so she was safe. She could attempt to stall as long as possible and wait for the Doctor to get here, or she could get out of the game quickly, and attempt to save as many of these people as possible. The Daleks needed her alive, but not any of the others.

As such, she threw _all_ of the answers, even the few that she knew. Except for the one about the Face of Boe—she just couldn't resist answering it, and being a smartass about it, too. "Jack Harkness," she said, raising her eyebrows just a little bit and grinning ferally, letting her tongue poke through her teeth. She couldn't save any of these people, but she could _promise_ that she would get revenge for them.

Everyone clearly expected the answer to be wrong—the question was clear: "The oldest inhabitant of the Isop Galaxy is the Face of what?" Rose's answer hadn't even made sense in the context given, and she had answered every other question incorrectly, too, the Anne-Droid's response seemed obvious.

Instead, "Correct. Jack Harkness is the most well-known alias of the Face of Boe."

"Hang on," the coordinator interrupted. "The Face of Boe doesn't have any known aliases, and how would she have known them if he did?"

"Oh," Rose said, slightly feral _wolf-like_ smile still fixed on her lips, "Jack and I go _waaayyyy_ back." Thankfully, the current Jack was trapped in What Not to Wear from hell, and couldn't see this and begin wondering how he could possibly end up ageing into an ancient head in a giant tank.

"And! We're going to commercial," the coordinator said in a slightly hysterical tone of voice. "Rose! Out you come," she added, the edge to her tone not disappearing. She flicked on her headset. "How did a personal friend of the Face of Boe end up on our transmat lists?"

Well. The name-dropping had had something of an unexpected side effect. The woman looked alarmed. She glanced from Rose's podium to her clipboard. "How?"

"Time travel. I've no idea," Rose said. All of the contestants were staring at her. "I was in 3252, Kyoto. Or on the way out of it, anyway. We dropped the egg of at Raxacoricofallaptorius, and then we went to Japan, Jack got us arrested and we escaped back to the TARDIS. Next thing any of us knew, there was a light shining through the place, and I ended up here. So your transmat beam is more powerful than you thought, because it can get into the TARDIS, and it can reach into the Time Vortex itself. What does that tell you?"

The woman shook her head weakly, but was interrupted by the Anne-Droid powering up again. Clearly, commercial time was over.

Just as she had been aiming for, she lost the first round. The coordinator frantically tried to stop the Anne-Droid from firing at her, but failed to get it shut down.

When she came to, she was laying on the ground again, this time surrounded by despotic pepper pots that screeched at her to get up as the transmat activated again. The Daleks were clearly about to kill the black girl that had appeared there when Rose got in the way.

"Don't you dare!"

"Rose Tyler is important," the Dalek buzzed. "Rose Tyler must not be exterminated."

"No! You can't kill me yet, can you? You need me alive! You need _bait_. You need the Doctor to cooperate with you, and you need to threaten me to do it," she said, false bravado hopefully hiding how terrified that she was. "And you aren't going to kill her, either! Because I won't let you! And if you try to fight with me, you might kill me by accident, and _then_ where would you be?"

As arguments, it wasn't the best, but the Daleks seemed to decide that she was worth listening to, because they backed off the girl and herded her into Rose's corner. Rose wrapped an arm around her.

"What—who are you? What's going on?"

"These are Daleks. Sort of. Scavengers, created by the emperor's ship after he fell out of the Time Lock."

"How does Rose Tyler know of these things? Explain! Explain!"

"I know a lot of things," Rose murmured. "I am, after all, the Bad Wolf." Daleks _could_ feel fear. Bad Wolf had been written into legends. The version of her that was Time made flesh that _leaked_ that strange smell that the Doctor's leather jacket smelled like; she was worshipped on at least seventeen planets. And she hadn't even _done _it yet.

But she would. And soon.

"Rose Tyler lies!" The Daleks in hearing distance all shrieked.

"Do I?" Rose asked. She squeezed the girl's shoulder. "I'm Rose. What's your name?"

"Crosbie," the girl whimpered. "I was in the Big Brother House, then they evicted me. And now I'm here!"

Rose was about to comfort her, but instead something rang a bell. "Big Brother? Was there a man there? With big ears and a Northern accent and a leather jacket? Bit of a smart-arse, calls himself the Doctor?"

"Yes! How did you know?"

"Because he's my—I just care about him, that's all. We travel together. Just hang tight, and he'll get us out of here," Rose added, squeezing again.

...

Sure enough, after she had waited long enough, the Doctor appeared on a screen above. The Daleks threatened, the Doctor looked anguished, a chick in pigtails that was standing beside the Doctor shrieked Crosbie's name, and Crosbie shrieked, "Lynda!" In return.

"I will talk to the Doctor," the Dalek said.

"Oh, will you? That's nice," the Doctor said, grinning at her. Infectiously, amazingly, and she could almost believe that they would both come out of this completely alright. "Hello," he added, waving cheekily.

"The Dalek stratagem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene," the Dalek instructed.

"Oh, really? Why's that, then?" The Doctor threw back. Her Doctor was sassier than he probably wanted to admit to being.

"We have your associate," the Dalek said. All of the other Daleks around them threateningly waved their whisk-guns in Rose's direction. "You will obey or she will be exterminated," the Dalek continued.

"No," the Doctor snapped. Everyone on his side of the viewing screen turned to stare at him.

"Explain yourself," the Dalek ordered flatly.

"I said no."

"What is the meaning of this negative?"

"It means no," the Doctor repeated.

"But she will be destroyed!" The Dalek protested, its shriek reaching a higher pitch.

"No! Because this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!" The Doctor yelled. Rose could see his anger, his pain, the blood and rage at every single Dalek that had ever dared to exist bleeding through, along with his worry for her, and his longing for Gallifrey, for his people.

"But you have no weapons, no defences, no plan," the Dalek protested.

"Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death. Rose?"

"Yes, Doctor?" She called.

"I'm coming to get you," he said, before shutting off the screens with his sonic. The image rippled and disappeared.

"The Doctor is initiating hostile action," the Dalek said.

"The stratagem must advance. Begin the invasion of Earth!" Another Dalek added.

"The Doctor will be exterminated!"

"Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"

Well. That wasn't ominous at all—what if something went wrong?

**So, I really have no excuse for how long it's been, and I'm not totally satisfied with this chapter, but it'll have to do. Rose is feeling angry, and she's been expecting Nine to regenerate, but that doesn't mean that she's ready to lose him. Remember, she's never met Ten, and when she did meet Eleven it was usually brief. Nine's the one who showed her the stars, and Nine's still her Doctor, and she doesn't want him to die. So she's pissed at the whole situation, sad that she's going to lose Nine, and generally has absolutely no respect for the morons at the gamestation, and, as such, she's going to do whatever she can to make their lives as difficult as possible, even if that just means being a smartass. Also, you may or may not have noticed that I changed the genre- I realized that adventure was probably more fitting for the way that this story is going. It used to be drama, if you were wondering. And if you're one of those people that doesn't usually even notice genres for stories, then it doesn't really matter!  
**


End file.
